Mobile Suit: Legacy gundam
by Sargent Toughie
Summary: What does it take to create a Legacy? One that will live on in the hearts and minds of people for generations to come?
1. Mvt 1: Groundwork

Although this shares the name Gundam, it can properly be described as a series of it's own, as it doesn't use any past characters or exact ideas from the Gundam univers, although you will see that it does borrow heavily from a lot of things that the Gundam series uses. I've wanted to write a Gundam fanfic for a while now, so here it is. Please enjoy the first part of _Mobile Suit: Legacy Gundam_.

As usual, I do not own Gundam, nor anything in the gundam franchise. Although every character thus far is mine.

**Movement 1: groundwork**

In the reaches of space, there had always been an incredible silence, a sort of quiet peace that space had known since the birth of time. This peace was brought to an end around the time that humans started populating the stars. The space colonization of humanity was formed in a desperate attempt to escape a world that was clearly on a course to utter destruction. As humanity slowly started to leave its home, the violent nature of the people left on earth started to escalate. At the climax of its violent fury, humanity started world war III, a battle that would end in a single day. About twenty four hours after war was declared, nuclear weapons were sent off by every country that possessed them, wiping out an unbelievable amount of the world's population instantly.

To preserve what little remained of their planet, the world's governments banned together in a hastily formed united world leadership. The results of this careless action brought humanity on earth into a new dark age, where only the rich were given power and authority, and the middle and lower classes were left for dead. The people in charge realized their mistakes, and they tried to do everything in their power to undo the broken government, however, to those with money and power, this new government and world order was a paradise. And by the time that the wrongdoing was realized, it was far too late to make a lasting impact. The people left to suffer under the weight of this new government cried out for help, reaching towards the stars towards the flourishing space colonies, however, to those who escaped into space, this was earth's problem and theirs alone. It seemed that there was no hope left for the suffering people of earth.

But that changed when Arteron appeared, Arteron was the first group to rise up and fight against the Earth forces, and they were by far the most successful. Formed from middle and lower class civilians that were unable to tolerate being pushed around and made to suffer by those in authority, the rebels of Arteron fought back against the Earth forces. In their initial blitzkrieg style assault, Arteron was able to catch the Earth forces completely off guard. They successfully made off with several mobile suits and a hi-jacked space frigate before making their escape aboard their new prize. The Earth forces tried to swiftly launch a counterattack, but were unable to, because Arteron was able to hide away in the space colonies.

Secretly backed by several space colonies and enlisting an overwhelming number of refugees almost overnight, Arteron quickly became one of the most powerful groups to resist the Earth forces. And so the war began, with Arteron performing multiple hit and run style attacks on the Earth forces before retreating to the safety of the outer colonies. It didn't take long for the people of Earth counter, by seizing control of colonies one at a time in order to reduce the number of safe places for Arteron to hide. As Earth force's influence slowly extended outward, the Arteron rebels knew that they were running out of time, they had to bring a swift and decisive end to their war against Earth.

………………………………………….

_One hundred and fifty years after unity day Seventy five years after Arteron's rise._

The quiet depths of space suddenly became alive with fire as a red energy blast rang out through the sky. A mobile suit coated in orange and red paint swiftly dodged the blast, causing the energy to trail off into infinite space. Inside the cockpit of this mobile suit, Jillian Ashfeld wiped away a bit of sweat from her forehead.  
"Too close for comfort… I've been dodging way too much this fight."

Jillian was the pilot of the mobile suit known as the Reaver Gundam. Reaver was much smaller and faster than the other Gundam models, allowing it to maneuver smoothly around most opponents before they could form a counterattack. To compliment its speed and maneuverability, Reaver came equipped with the standard beam swords and a single rifle, but underneath its frame, Reaver was packing a few unique pieces of weaponry. Jillian put the commands into Reaver's control panel, causing hidden compartments in its shoulders to open up. Small sharp blades suddenly shot out of these compartments, attached to chains, these blades were called the _claw lances_, and were unique to the Reaver Gundam.

The claw lances rocketed swiftly towards their target, a bulky mobile suit some distance away. This suit's paint was primarily a dark blue and black, making it blend in well with the void of space. In its hands it held a lengthy rifle with a scope attached to the top, the powerful punch that the rifle let out when fired made it an incredible sniping weapon in the hands of an experienced pilot. The blue and black mobile suit that Jillian was trying to overpower was called the Sentinel Gundam, and its pilot was the most laid back man that Jillian had ever met.

As Reaver's claw lances dug deep into Sentinel's frame, a voice came over Jillian's comm, not betraying any emotion rather than the lazy attitude that the man almost always spoke in.  
"Whoops, looks you got me, Jillian"

The corner of Jillian's lip curled downward, that relaxed attitude always annoyed her when they fought.  
"Give me a break, Eric; I'm sure you've got something up your sleeve."

After saying this, Jillian input the command for the claw lances to withdraw back to their containers by winding back the chains connected to them. Doing this allowed Jillian to punch forward at full speed towards Sentinel while being able to keep a lock on his position, because the lances were still stuck in Sentinel's frame. Jillian drew both of her beam swords and swung them violently at Sentinel, but her enemy was one step ahead of her, as he drew a much smaller gun from his side and fired at the chains, freeing the opposing Gundam of the claw lance's grip. After this, Sentinel retreated by punching the boosters in reverse, sending him out of the way of Reaver's sword attack.

Sentinel brought its main rifle up again and took another well aimed shot at Reaver's chest, another shot that the much faster Gundam easily dodged. Keeping a blade in one hand, Jillian brought out Reaver's rifle and charged forward, firing at Sentinel several times as she advanced on him. Sentinel responded by bringing up a protective energy shield, which protected him from Reaver's barrage. The barrier fell just as Reaver got in range for another sword strike, but this time Sentinel moved to finish the fight instead of prolong it.

Sentinel was prepared for Reaver's attack, so it rose upward to dodge the slash smoothly. While still at point blank range, Sentinel placed his main rifle directly at Reaver's head. At this moment, both pilots knew exactly who was victorious. Jillian's eyes grew wide as she looked up to see the barrel of the weapon not even two inches away from her Gundam's head.  
"Damn…"

Sentinel pulled the trigger, and Jillian's entire field of vision was filled with a blinding purple light. After a second everything faded away, the purple light suddenly went black, and the control panel that Jillian was using to control Reaver folded away. All of the screens and digital readouts faded back into their natural walls, and Jillian was left in a small metal capsule.  
"Urgh! Damn it!!!"

She kicked open the door and stepped out of the capsule, violence was always a great way to vent frustration in Jillian's mind. As she stepped out of the capsule she entered a rather small room, which contained several other capsules like the one that Jillian was in just moments ago. She looked up at a large screen that took up an entire wall of the room to see two massive words that made her blood boil.

"_Sentinel wins"_

Jillian couldn't help but growl in frustration, she was never gifted with the ability to be a graceful looser.  
"As if it's not obvious enough! Come on!!!"

The same slow and lazy voice that she heard during her battle suddenly rang out from behind her.  
"Aw don't be like that, Jillian. It's not like it's the end of the world or anything."

Jillian turned around to make eye contact with the man that was supposed to be her comrade. Eric Langford was about five years older than Jillian, putting him at about twenty three, and although he generally took everything with a mindset of one that was far too relaxed, he was one of the most intelligent and resourceful people that Jillian ever met. Their last battle showed a shining example of that, as he used Jillian's reckless fighting style against her by using a long range weapon and point blank range. The fact that there was much of a fight at all proves that Eric wasn't out to win right from the start; he didn't even scratch the surface of what the Sentinel Gundam was capable of.

Jillian brushed a bang of her black hair out of her face as she glared at Eric.  
"Whatever, I still lead in total victories. Don't get all egotistical on me, pal."

Eric responded moments later without so much as a shrug.  
"It's because you caught me off guard the first few times with how reckless you are, now that I'm getting a feel for the way you fight, you honestly don't stand much of a chance."

Jillian balled her fist and growled a little again. Despite being one of the prettiest girls in the whole of the Arteron organization at the age of nineteen, Jillian was always a little rough around the edges, manners were never really important to her while she was growing up, but when she started to get angry it was a complete downhill spiral until she managed to calm herself down. Several of the people that Jillian worked with on a daily basis were quick to point out this personality flaw, saying that she would have to gain control of her temper if she ever wanted to be a talented Gundam Pilot. Even though these things were said, the speakers seldom stuck around long enough to see Jillian's reaction for fear of what she would do. Eric was the first person that ever got under Jillian's skin and actually resisted her mile long temper with his constantly relaxed attitude.

Before Jillian could snap off another frustrated comment towards Eric, a voice came over the intercom and took over the attention of both pilots.  
"Okay you two, you've had your fill of simulator battles, now get to the bridge and prepare to get this mission underway."

Jillian and Eric were aboard the Arteron prototype ship _Starflare._ The Starflare was equipped with cutting edge weaponry developed by the R&D group that Arteron established once they were stable in the outer colonies. Everything about the Starflare was absolutely top of the line for Arteron, including the 4 specialized mobile suits that were docked in the ship's bays. These mobile suits were created using extremely rare materials found in a scarce few places in the galaxy. When combined together, these materials formed an extremely unique alloy named _Gundanium _by the person that created it. Gundanium was extraordinarily durable yet one of the most lightweight metals ever created. As an ode to the key component, the suits themselves were named Gundams. There were four Gundams in total, but only the Reaver and the Sentinel had pilots. When a person tries to activate a Gundam for the first time, the computer systems aboard the Starflare run a complete personality exam on the individual. The system checks background information, personal information, anything that was put on any sort of automated file concerning the would be pilot. If the individual in question does not meet the qualifications set in place to pilot the Gundam they are trying to operate, then the Gundam will not activate. After a Gundam's initial activation, it will utilize on board scanners to ensure that the pilot is the one that was allowed to begin its first start up.

Simply put; the Gundams "choose" their pilots, and once they have somebody they like, they don't let go. Luckily for Jillian, experience does not factor into the Gundam's personal check, or she wouldn't have been selected as the pilot of Reaver. Before joining Arteron, Jillian had never even seen a mobile suit before, so her lack of experience would have crippled her chances of being a pilot. The Gundams hold an incredible amount of power, enough to destroy entire armies if in the hands of the right pilot. In order to prevent a greenhorn pilot from accidentally causing devastation, the Gundam reads its pilot's skill level and adjusts its capabilities accordingly. As the pilot grows more skilled, the Gundam frees more of its power to be unleashed.

Jillian was reflecting on how incredibly advanced the Gundams were as Eric moved them smoothly through the halls of the prototype frigate. Eric had joined Arteron roughly a year before Jillian, and was the first one to actually gain control of a Gundam. His year head start made him quite a bit more skilled with his Gundam then Jillian was, so he made for a proper opponent for Jillian to try and overcome. She followed him silently through the crowded halls and narrow corridors as he led the way to the conference room, this room was by far one of the most heavily used and convenient rooms in the entire Starflare. No other room on the ship allowed for a quick briefing of the entire ship's crew, as well as emergency conferences, when the time came for the crew of the Starflare to hear about what their mission was, the conference room was the place to be.

The doors opened, and both Gundam pilots found their seats, Eric proceeded to lean back in the chair and prop his feet up on the table, as was his ritual for when he was in this room. In front of the table and standing near a large screen was a woman about two years older than Eric. She looked at the relaxed pilot with disdain as Eric spoke to her in a lighthearted manor.  
"Alrighty, Terra, what's the deal? I was having fun putting the rookie in her place…"

Whoever started the stereotype that blondes were foolish had clearly never met Eric and Terra. Terra was Eric's older sister, but other than their hair and their inherent intelligence, they had absolutely nothing in common. Compared to Eric's eternally relaxed mindset, Terra was constantly serious and stressed out over what were sometimes very mundane things. When Jillian first heard they were siblings, she honestly thought they were trying to fool her, but later on she started describing it as '_when Terra was born they forgot to add the part of her that is relaxed and at ease, so when Eric was born he got a double dose'. _Eric found this statement appropriately funny, but Terra responded to it by rubbing her temples and moving on to another subject.

Terra rose her voice at her younger brother as she responded to his statement.  
"How about you start acting like a respectable pilot, and then I'll tell you _what the deal _is."

Eric replied quickly by raising his hand and waiving her off.  
"I've got all day"

Jillian couldn't help but start laughing; she turned her head towards Terra.  
"You can't win"

Terra's tart reply came quick, but she had a talent for shifting the subject quickly, preventing Jillian from countering.  
"Neither can you… apparently, moving on, we're about to leave station and about to make a trip to test out the Starflare"

Eric spoke up, not even raising his head to make eye contact with her.  
"Alright, well where are we going?"

"We're actually picking up somebody, there's a girl on Mantura that's very important to our goals."

* * *

Cecilia Stargrove had always wish she lived a normal life on the Mantura colony, one of the closest space colonies to Earth and one of the first to become seized by the ETGF (Earth Territory Guardian Force). When she was six years old her father was executed for being affiliated with Arteron. Because Cecilia never had a chance to meet her mother either, she was raised in a rundown house that was hosted by the warmest old lady that ever touched Cecilia's life. When the almost starved young Cecilia had first come under the Ms. Bell's roof, all that she had in her heart was anger. She hated the world for taking away her father, and wanted to see Earth burn. However, after living with Ms. Bell for so many years she grew into a polite and well mannered young lady. Despite her kindness, Cecilia also became desensitized to violence, that's to be expected though; she lived in the slums on an ETGF controlled colony.

When Ms. Bell passed away a few years ago, Cecilia was the only one to mourn her passing. Officers from the ETGF came and took her body away, claiming that she was given a proper service. Cecilia stopped believing the lies of these people many years ago however. She silently hid away and watched them throw the body of her savior into a giant pit and torch it. This hurt Cecilia, but it didn't scar her. It was too late for the ETGF to damage her by this point in her life. To honor Ms. Bell's memory, Cecilia continued to live in the decrepit house and spend each day fighting to keep it standing. One day it was putting fresh wood on the stairs, the next it was putting the door back on its hinges. It was hard work, but that old place was Cecilia's home, she wasn't going to see it fall, not without a fight.

With her eighteenth birthday being just around the corner, Cecilia considered the idea of saving up enough money to get off of Mantura, to go live in one of the unoccupied colonies out of the ETGF's grasp. She swiftly discounted this idea, however. Because of the ETGF's monstrously aggressive campaign getting far enough away to be safe would cost more than Cecilia would see in her lifetime. So she resigned herself to the old house, deciding that she would likely grow up to be a second Ms. Bell by doing nothing with her life except maybe rescue a single person. The thought of such a meaningless existence scared Cecilia; deep in her heart was a desire to do something with her life, to be somebody important.

Loud knocks almost strong enough to break down the door rang from the entrance to Cecilia's home, and without waiting for a response, several law enforcement agents from the ETGF stormed into her house. This was a regular occurrence as about once a month ETGF would raid houses and tear them apart as a 'shakedown' search for Arteron agents. Things went away from what Cecilia expected, however, when they pointed hand weapons at her and commanded her to stop moving.  
"Is your name Cecilia Stargrove! Answer or we shall use lethal force!"  
"Y-yes, that's me."

In classic ETGF style they moved in and forced her to the ground, binding her with restraints as though she was a professional bodybuilder that was fighting for his freedom. As two of them dragged her out the door, the third one was speaking on his radio.  
"Yes, we've got the target; you're sure that Arteron will- understood…"

He continued his conversation, but Cecilia wasn't able to hear the rest of it as she was thrown into the back of their car. The two officers got into the seats in front of her, looking straight ahead. Cecilia rose up and spoke to them.  
"Excuse me, what's happening here? What was that I heard about Arte-"

She was cut off before she could finish her sentence by a shocking jolt that came through her arms. She didn't know firsthand, but the ETGF had installed shock systems into their restraints, allowing them to give their prisoners a jolt whenever things got out of hand… or whenever the ETGF agents were bored. After a pained yelp the shock went away and one of the agents up front turned their head to her.  
"Shut up, nobody said you could speak!"

They continued to ride on, and after several minutes the two agents seemed to stop caring that she was back there, as they started to talk among themselves for a little while.  
"So, this girl is supposed to be important to Arteron's plans?"  
"I don't know… orders from up top said to bring her in though… Orders are orders"  
"Yeah, I understand tha-"

Their conversation was cut short, as something just beside the car suddenly exploded, sending it crashing off to the side. Curtsey of technological breakthroughs, the two officers in it were left unharmed as the fire didn't even break through the frame of the vehicle. Cecilia, on the other hand, had been shoed to the side and had crashed her head against the side of the car. Just as suddenly as the explosion, the car doors were ripped open and both agents were shot and killed with two clean bullets to the head. Three men in black armor quickly rushed up, carefully pulling a disoriented Cecilia from the back seats.

As Cecilia started to regain her sense a few moments later, she could hear one of them speaking over a communication line.  
"Legacy's chosen has been recovered, relatively unharmed. We're heading to the Pickup zone now."

Cecilia's mind went from disorientation to confusion, why would Arteron want her? They must have mistaken her for some undercover agent that went missing, or something. There was no reason that Arteron would want to abduct an average seventeen year old girl.  
_"Then again, these people rescued me from the ETGF… so who's at fault here?"_

In her current position, Cecilia couldn't do anything but go with the actions and pray that she survives, but she made a promise to herself that at the first available chance she would stop and get some answers. Going from a quiet life in a rotting house to a firefight in the middle of the slums in the time of an hour messed with Cecilia's mind a little. Just when she was losing faith that the confusion would ever end, she overheard the most delightful sound coming from the same man that was speaking before.  
"Yes… We're going to lay low at safezone 3 for a couple hours until things settle down, alright… Out"

A couple minutes later all four of them were sitting in the basement of a random house. Since a massive majority of the slums secretly supported Arteron, it wasn't hard to find a place to hide. The one Cecilia assumed to be the leader took off his helmet, revealing himself as a middle aged man with a scruffy looking beard, it looked more like he had forgotten to shave for a couple days rather actual facial hair. He paused as he blinked a few times and set his helmet off to the side, then he focused his attention on Cecilia.  
"My name is Alan; I am a ground commander of Arteron"

In Cecilia's mind, she was shouting about how obvious that statement was, but she decided to simply keep her mouth shut for a little longer, and listen to what Alan had to say. After remaining silent for a few seconds, Alan continued.  
"You must be very confused right now, anybody would be. I'll do everything I can to set your mind at ease. If you have any questions, please speak up."

Cecilia's emotions overpowered her, and she blurted out the first thing that came to mind before her brain kicked in.  
"Why me!? Why am I here right now? Why does Arteron want me? What do they want me for?"

Alan sighed, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his legs.  
"Your father was Richard Stargrove… right?"

Cecilia's eyes widened in shock, this was the first time that she had heard her dad's name in over ten years.  
"Y-you knew my father?"  
"Yes, he was an engineer in Arteron, one of our top brains."

Cecilia had spent her entire life denying that fact, hearing it confirmed hurt her in a place she didn't know she had. In her shock, all she could do was mutter two simple words.  
"No… way…"  
"Yes, he developed a new type of mobile suit, generations ahead of its time. He called this new model a 'Gundam'… Only four have ever been designed and built, as Richard was only able to complete four blueprints before he was caught and killed."

Cecilia started to compute this information, but Alan continued before she could speak.  
"I know, we still haven't answered your question. One of the Gundams… On its blueprint it says that only one person in this universe is allowed to pilot it… His daughter, Cecilia."  
"Only… me?"

There was a short pause, as Cecilia thought about this and Alan gave her time to speak her mind.  
"But I've never even driven a regular car before, you honestly expect me to pilot a killing machine!?"

Alan sighed slightly as he stood.  
"Listen, you can either come with us and sort this mess out… or you can go out there to the ETGF and have them interrogate you… choice is yours"

Cecilia took a full minute before she answered his statement, her head lowered and glaring at the floor.  
"That's obvious… Fine, I'll go with you, and see with my own eyes what this is all about."

* * *

Julian Arrowind strode proudly through the hallways, wearing his new ETGF pilot's uniform. Becoming an official pilot made him one step closer to his father, a general of the same force. For as long as Julian could remember he was fascinated with mobile suits, he first started piloting basic suits around the age of eleven, and it became a niche that he fell in love with. As soon as he was old enough to enlist, he joined the ETGF in order to follow in the path of his famous father. Although younger than most every other pilot in the force at the young age of nineteen, Julian had already proved himself more talented in the cockpit of a mobile suit then anybody in his squad, and better then about seventy-five percent of the whole ETGF. He hated it when people said that he was simply using his father's authority to further his own career, so Julian made a regular habit of demonstrating his skills to those who doubted him. This gave him a reputation for being somewhat arrogant, but in all actuality, he just desired to prove that he was standing on his own two feet.

As he approached his father's office, Julian stopped at the door and messed with his brown hair a little bit to ensure it didn't look messy. After he was done, he pushed open the door and stepped into the General's office. After the initial salute, he stood just a little more relaxed then he should have.  
"You wanted to see me da- I mean- General?"

General Arrowind didn't seem to mind his son's behavior, it was impossible to deny that there was a little bit of favoritism when it came to his son.  
"Yes, I did Julian, there's a man here to see you… Mr. Agro?"

General Arrowind turned his head to a man in a suit that was standing behind his desk. The man had long white hair that came down to his shoulder blades, and on his chest was a small badge that Julian recognized as the symbol of the IRD2 (Independent Research & Development Division).  
_"What does the IRD2 want with me?"_

Mr. Agro stepped in front of General Arrowind, focusing on Julian.  
"Lieutenant Arrowind, Supposedly top pilot of your squadron… that's impressive, very impressive…"

Julian was always a bit forward, though he tried to remain as polite as possible while he spoke.  
"You came here to do more than compliment me… right sir?"

Mr. Agro simply smirked, Julian got an odd feeling that he liked the Lieutenant's forward approach.  
"Yes, as a matter of fact I did."

Mr. Agro opened up a briefcase that was resting on the General's desk, flipping through several papers.  
"The information you are about to hear is labeled as classified… these words do not leave this room."  
"Understood."

Mr. Agro handed Julian several of the papers, revealing that they held schematics for a new model of mobile suit. The man spoke while Julian silently flipped through the papers.  
"The IRD2 has been working on a new model of mobile suit, designed to enter mass production for use by the ETGF next year."

Now dropping any level of bearing he had, Julian spoke in a normal tone and didn't take his eyes off the schematics.  
"That's pretty big news; I can see how that's classified. So why tell me this?"

General Arrowind cut in, speaking on Mr. Argo's behalf.  
"We're assembling a small group of around fifty pilots to give these new models a test run. We want to get an idea for how it operates in the field before the main military begins making use of it. Mr. Agro here requested that I put forth names for pilots I think are qualified for the list… Your name was among those I put forward, Julian"

Julian stood up straight again as he addressed his father.  
"I'm honored."  
"It's because you've earned this right, Julian, you're one of the best… that's why you're on that list."

Julian simply nodded as his response; he knew that his father wouldn't put family ties over the well being of the ETGF. Instead, Mr. Agro began making slight motions towards the door.  
"Well, General, I've got what I came here for. Since you're here at a good time, Lieutenant, how about I show you to our bunkers?"

Julian traced Mr. Agro's motions, handing back the papers and responding quickly.  
"Lead the way."

As Mr. Agro turned and began to leave, Julian gave his father a formal farewell and followed behind him. Outside of the General's office, Mr. Agro moved swiftly and left the command building, heading out to a far station where several mobile suit bunkers were located. He spoke to Julian without looking behind him.  
"So tell me, Lieutenant, do you think you're ready for this? It's a pretty important assignment."  
"It's an honor to be chosen for such a massive task. I won't let you down."

Mr. Agro suddenly halted, turning around and looking at Julian with a completely serious gaze.  
"Being a General's son is nice… Isn't it?"

True, Julian had lived a very comfortable life; anything he wanted was literally a finger's snap away. But he always stated that there was a key difference between him and every other spoiled little monster that was well off in the Earth colonies. He always tried his hardest to work for his luxuries, living by the values that his father instilled in him from a very young age. Julian put his heart into everything he did; trying to prove that he deserved everything that he had, much unlike all of the people Julian grew up with. Because of his pride and his effort, he couldn't hide that he was offended by Mr. Agro's statement.  
"Excuse me… Sir?"

After a moment, Mr. Argo turned his back to Julian and continued walking.  
"Ah, that was rather inappropriate of me to ask, forget that happened."

Julian would put it behind him, but he was starting to dislike Mr. Agro. Something about the man simply made Julian feel uncomfortable, other than the fact that he seemed to lump in Julian as a spoiled brat.

After a few more minutes of walking through the base, the two came to a massive bunker. Mr. Agro placed a hand on the doorknob, turning to Julian.  
"This is our bunker, Lieutenant Arrowind… Welcome to the Ares blades"  
_"They named their new model after the Greek god of war? This thing better be a behemoth."_

Mr. Agro turned the handle, and both men stepped through the threshold into the bunker. Inside were massive mobile suits, their primary paint was standard white, but each model seemed to have a unique secondary color, possibly used to identify individual units in a high stress situation. Julian instantly ruled out the possibility that agents were now allowed to customize their own suits, that simply doesn't happen in the military.

Just from their frame, Julian could tell that these were a massive improvement over the ETGF's current signature mobile suit, the Legionnaire. The Ares seemed like it was exactly like the Legionnaire, except superior in every factor. Julian couldn't help but get an urge to jump into the controls right then and there. He was eager to test out exactly how much better than the standard mobile suit the Ares was. He had trouble keeping in mind that it was intended for mass production, and that it was a bad idea to get his expectation about the Ares too high up.

A voice from behind Julian's back took his mind off the mobile suit, and focused it on an entirely different being.  
"Julie!? You were chosen too?"

Julian turned around with an excited grin, only one person in the universe ever called him 'Julie'. Andrew Mann was just as talented a pilot as Julian, and undoubtedly Julian's best friend. Back when Julian was little, he spent a lot of time out of the house and in the lower regions. Back then all of the kids that weren't as lucky as Julian shunned him, running away whenever he got close. The only person willing to spend time with Julian was Andrew, and the two of them quickly became inseparable. Courtesy of Julian's father, the two of them even got into the same training school, making Andrew the first lowborn to ever become an ETGF pilot. Upon seeing his dearest friend, Julian crossed his arms and grinned.  
"Andy! What are you doing here!"  
"Oh come on Julie, I'm a member of the Ares blades, and you are too, I assume?"  
"Well naturally!"  
"Dang it! And here I thought I had finally stepped ahead of you for once."  
"Oh come on, we both know that I'm the one who'd-"

Mr. suddenly displayed an incredible ability to vacuum all of the happiness out of the situation, but speaking in an annoyed tone and glaring at the two.  
"This little reunion brings a tear to my eye, truly… Now if you don't mind, we've got a mission brief, get into the briefing room."

With that said, Mr. Agro took off to tell the other members of the Ares Blades, Julian watched him walk away with an eyebrow raised.  
"… Already?"

Andy rested his elbow on Julian's shoulder, laughing.  
"The Ares Blades are high speed like that… I like it"

Julian shoved away the elbow with a chuckle, and the two headed towards the briefing room.

Both Julian and Andy were in a room with about fifty other pilots, all proud members of the Ares blades. After everybody was inside, Mr. Agro stepped calmly up to a podium at the front of the room.  
"Blades, we're going to Mantura. We have reason to believe that there is going to be a major Arteron offensive on that colony."

* * *

And so ends chapter one of Legacy Gundam. I'm eager to hear your feedback concerning this story. Was it too long? Was it too confusing? If you see something wrong with my writing that I can improve, please feel free to speak up. Otherwise, your compliments do good things for my confidence in writing.

Next time: Movement 2- Battle at Mantura.


	2. Mvt 2: Battle at Mantura

And so begins the second chapter of Mobile Suit: Legacy Gundam. I will try my hardest to have new material coming out more frequently in this story, as I'm having far more fun writing this then I was for my previous two stories. As usual, I don't own the Gundam concept, but there's only one character in this story that doesn't belong to me... And you're going to know exactly who that is when I bring them out.

With no further delay, please enjoy chapter 2- Battle at Mantura.

* * *

**Mobile suit: Legacy Gundam- Movement 2: Battle at Mantura**

"We're going to be within visual range of Mantura within the hour, Ms. Terra"

Hans, the helmsman of the Starflare, looked over at the ship's captain. His eyes clearly visible beneath his thin reading glasses. Terra often speculated that Hans only wore them for the ascetic value, as he looked very unusual when he wasn't wearing them. Small and unimportant habits aside, Terra addressed him with a nod.  
"Thank you Hans, Lilly, anything we should be concerned about?"

Lilly was one of the youngest operatives on the Starflare, if not all of Arteron, at the age of fourteen. Nonetheless, she proved herself as an incredibly talented tactical monitor. She would frequently identify and point out possible enemy ambushes that no other analyst would see. Her talents at this task earned her a place aboard the Starflare. As she spoke to Terra, she didn't take her eyes off her monitor. Terra always liked her work ethic when things got tense.  
"Nothing yet, but we're deep in ETGF territory, so I'm keeping my eyes peeled."

Terra smiled, returning her gaze to the front screen, which currently held an image of the colony Mantura. Mantura was one of the first colonies to be built when humanity started escaping into space, and was the first legitimate success at artificially creating a complete environmental system. Mantura had seasons, temperatures, everything that earth had... and it was created by humans. Looking more like a small planet in it's own right rather then a human creation, Mantura hovered around it's axis slowly, perfectly emulating the motions of real planets. Mantura even looked like a planet from orbit. It had all the bodies of water, vegetation, and polar caps that earth had. If one were to take this colony and compare it to a real planet, it would be extensively difficult to tell the difference. In all practicality, humans were building artificial planets, and several of them.  
"we've come a long way from dancing around a fire... no doubt about that"

Tamaki, the weapons operator, looked over at her from his post. When it came to skillfully operating ship weaponry, Tamaki was not only one of Arteron's best, but he actually helped design several of the weapons that the Starflare used. Needless to say that he insisted he be the one to come aboard the Starflare and use the system. Luckily for all of the Starflare's crew, Arteron wouldn't have anybody else at the controls.  
"What do you mean by that?"

Terra shook her head, realizing that she had said her statement out loud.  
"N- Nothing, disregard"

Tamaki let out a small sigh of annoyance, turning back to his post while Terra started to stand.  
"Lilly, tell our two Gundam pilots to meet me in the briefing room, as well as captain Kamaru"

Captain Shinji Kamaru was the leader of the regular mobile suit division. The Starflare not only contained the four Gundams, but it also a complete contingent of Arteron's mass produced mobile suit, the Nomura model. In some aspects, the Nomura was superior to the ETGF's Legionnaire model. It was slightly easier to control and had a superior rifle. But that's where it's advantages end, the Legionnaire was far more durable, and it had a much better thruster system then the Nomura, making it much faster in combat situations. In a one on one battle, a Legionnaire would destroy a Nomura every time. However, Captain Kamaru was a proud and talented pilot, and he made the Nomura do things that were once considered impossible for the model. Terra tried several times to put him in the cockpit of a Gundam, but he outright refused to even try the entry every time. He claimed that his place on the battlefield was with his men, on equal footing with those who served under him. He also claimed that even if he was to try, there's no way that any of the Gundams would let a man like him take control. Captain Kamaru was a man that earned the respect of every member of the Starflare's crew, even Jillian couldn't help but sing his praises from time to time.

By the time Terra made the walk to the conference room, she was the second one in as usual. Kamaru stood up and placed his right arm over his left shoulder.  
"Ma'am, you ordered my presence here."

Captain Kamaru was a very formal and militant person, even though Arteron had no military regulations, he still acted as though he was addressing a superior officer when he spoke to Terra. She smiled at him and waved for him to sit down.  
"Relax Shinji, no need for all that."  
"My apologies"

Captain Kamaru sat back down, but he sat at the end of the seat with his back still mostly straight. Terra wished that her brother would learn a bit from Kamaru's definition of relaxing. He continued his statement after he sat.  
"In any case, what is the plan for recovering Legacy's chosen?"

Terra sat, leaning her elbows on the table.  
"Wait until Pestilence and War get here."

Terra often jokingly referred to Jillian and Eric as the first two horsemen of the apocalypse. Eric was the first one to become a Gundam pilot, and he was quickly dubbed Pestilence, it worked for him because his inherent laziness made people think that he was always down with some kind of virus. Then Jillian came along and filled in the role of pilot number two, ergo, War. Anybody that had ever met Jillian realized that this matched her amazingly well, for being a humorous coincidence.

Terra chuckled a little bit whenever she reflected on how well it matched up, and she was looking forward to meeting the remaining two pilots, if only to have a complete set of horsemen. Kamaru didn't share her amusement in the joke, and he simply nodded in understanding of what she was saying. A few minutes later, both Jillian and Eric came strolling in, arguing as usual.

Jillian grabbed at her chair with one hand and jabbed an index finger violently towards Eric.  
"And don't try and say 'oh, I was just trying to give you some pointers' or something like that... NO EXCUSES!!!"

Eric didn't turn to face her as he pulled his chair back with a leg, then he proceeded to fall into it lazily and prop his feet up on the table.  
"I don't have a reason to do something like that, you're overreacting Jillian... as usual."  
"Over- I'll show you overreacting!"

Before either pilot could snap off another word, Terra killed the argument by shouting loudly.  
"ENOUGH!!! We're about to begin the most important mission that anybody from Arteron has ever been a part of, so sit down and get ready to listen!"

Jillian gave her a shocked look, but kept her mouth shut. But Eric didn't even flinch, he rose a hand and gave her a thumb's up to indicate that he was listening.

Terra calmed down, she pointed towards the screen in the briefing room as it came to life. On it was a 3D model of a mobile suit formation.  
"Alright, hopefully this will be a simple pickup... no complications... hopefully"

Jillian rose an eyebrow after hearing that statement.  
"You sound kind of nervous, Terra"  
"I'm always nervous"

* * *

Alan and the other Arteron agents had led Cecilia through a series of underground passages and hidden alleyways. After only a day of traveling they had put plenty of ground between them and the place where Cecilia first encountered Alan and his men. At present, they were in a forest, and the trees blocked Cecilia's view of the sky, oddly enough, this actually made Cecilia feel more comfortable.

Cecilia started to place her mind at ease, and she had started asking Alan about Arteron, curious about what exactly they stood for.  
"So, what is Arteron's stance on the Earth forces? They're far more direct then the other terrorist groups"  
"We're not Terrorists, Arteron is at war with the ETGF, not it's people. If innocent blood is spilled by Arteron, it's accidental, period."

Cecilia lowered her gaze, what she had heard her entire life about Arteron being ruthless genocidal monsters was unraveling it's falseness. She sort of felt silly for believing what she was hearing about the massive resistance group. She often told herself that anything that the ETGF said was rubbish, but she was completely fooled when it came to the truth about Arteron. It just went to show exactly how much effort the ETGF put into making Arteron look like the bad guys.

Cecila stopped her survey concerning Arteron, deciding to take Alan's word about their views and methods. She looked over at him as he rose a small radio to his face.  
"Come in Starflare, do you hear me? Alright, good. We've recovered Legacy's chosen, we're almost at the pickup point, you can begin sending down the transport now. Understood, out"

Cecilia looked away, thinking to herself.  
_"Legacy's chosen? Is that their name for me?"_

The group traveled along for another couple of minutes, but their trip was cut short when one of Alan's men shouted something through his helmet.  
"Sir! I'm picking up something on my radar!"

Alan turned to the man that spoke those words, his eyes wide.  
"What? Is it the-"

Alan's question was cut off when two white mobile suits suddenly came crashing down, landing several yards away from the group. Alan looked at the two suits, fear filling his eyes.  
"It's... it's the ETGF!"

The same man that pointed out their presence turned and addressed Alan.  
"But I've never seen that type of mobile suit before! Is it a new model?"  
"It has to be, run for it, now!"

All of Alan's men scattered, trying to distract the two mobile suits while Alan grabbed Cecilia's arm and rushed her towards the pickup zone. He pressed a button on his comm as he did, sending an emergency signal to the Starflare.

* * *

Julian let out a dismayed shock as he saw his rival mobile suit launch over his head, mere inches away from scratching the surface. After the other Ares landed, an ecstatic voice roared over his comm.  
"Boom! that was at least a hundred points! Man, I'm so good at this game!"

Julian couldn't help but grin a little, his competitive spirit kicking in.  
"Keep talking Andy, gives me more chances show you up."

After the Ares blades moved to Mantura, Mr. Agro gave the entire group a standby order and told them to be prepared should Arteron begin their attack. Andy took this opportunity to challenge Julian to a time honored tradition between the two.

Julian and his childhood friend were playing a game that they invented when they first started piloting mobile suits. It was a way to get practice in piloting without damaging the suits by putting them in a combat situation. But right now, it was being used as a trial system to get both pilots acquainted with how the Ares handled, and Julian was impressed. The Ares handled much easier then the Legionnaire, placing simplicity as a top priority. Maneuvering in the Ares was a smooth and streamlined process. Whoever designed the Ares must have been a pilot that was frustrated and annoyed with the complicated and unfriendly controls that the Legionnaire sported. It also had several other improvements over the Legionnaire, but the revised control panel was by far the biggest improvement, instantly increasing combat performance by at least sixty percent.

Julian spun his Ares around to face Andy's, raising a hand and coming to the realization that it was possible to use individual fingers with the Ares (one small improvement over the Legionnaire), an action that he used to point towards the opposing Mobile suit.  
"Alright, but the score is still 260-325... with me in the lead."

Andy's response came quick, bearing a sort of humored annoyance in it.  
"I'm telling you, that trick you pulled in the ravine DIDN'T COUNT!"

Julian laughed as he threw on the thrusters and took off into the air, performing a barrel roll as he maneuvered smoothly through the sky.  
"Don't hate what you can't imitate Andy."

Andy took off into the air as well, imitating Julian's aerial acrobatics and adding on some more complicated moves of his own.  
"I know you didn't just start the rhyming contest."  
"What if I did?"  
"Well then-"

Julian cut Andy off as something popped up onto his mobile suit's HUD. It was a radio signal coming from an unknown source, Julian's Ares was intercepting a transmission coming in on a signal that Julian had never heard before.  
"Hold on, are you picking it up too, Andy?"  
"Yeah..."

A couple of seconds passed while both pilots reflected on this occurrence. They came to the same conclusion at the same moment.  
"Arteron!"

Without hesitation, both pilots activated full speed thrusters and rocketed towards the source of the transmission. Andy spoke to Julian through the comm in a serious and hurried voice.  
"I'm connecting to Mr. Agro right now and telling him what we've picked up. If we're right, then this could be the start of Arteron's attack."  
"We're not going to let them make the first strike, come on Andy let's show them our new toys!"  
"Right here with you."

The two Ares mobile suits flew for several minutes, quickly coming to the source of the transmission and dropping down. Upon landing, both suits started scanning the area, they immediately identified a group of Arteron agents, identifiable by their black armor. They were all scattering, every single one going in a different direction, except for...

"They're running for it, Julian. Ignore the foot soldiers, they're just distractions."

"That much is obvious"

Julian and Andy rocketed forward, quickly catching up with the two that ran straight forward and catching them in the middle of a wide open field. They were a middle aged man and a young girl, Julian's eyes widened when he laid eyes on the girl, for some reason, something inside of him wouldn't believe that somebody that looked so innocent was a member of Arteron. He had always been told that Arteron agents could be of any age and look like anybody, but seeing that girl, Julian simply couldn't buy that she was involved with Arteron. He looked over to see Andy raising his Ares' rifle, aiming it at the pair. Something in his heart stung as he watched Andy do this, he flipped the switch to his comm and started to speak to his childhood friend.  
"Andy... are you sure about this?"  
"... No... But, But"

Julian could almost hear Andy as he started to pull the trigger.  
"They're our enemies, right? They have to be..."

Julian had to make a decision, he was well aware that these people had to be in Arteron. But some part in his heart, something he had never felt before commanded that he prevent their deaths. As Andy began pulling the trigger, Julian rushed over in his mobile suit, shoving Andy's rifle out of the way just as the shot went off. The burst of energy went rocketing into the sky, not harming the man or the girl. Andy's voice came over the comm, shocked.  
"Julian, what are you doing?"

Not even Julian had an answer for that. Something inside of him couldn't allow those two to die. Thinking quickly, he formed a reasonable sounding excuse.  
"We don't know for sure that these people are involved with Arteron, we should arrest them and bring them in for questioning... not kill them in cold blood!"

several seconds passed before Andy responded. His voice carried a certain amount of doubt that hurt Julian's heart to think about  
"Yeah... alright then. You lead"

Julian nodded inside his cockpit, and he took one step towards the couple. The girl was rightfully terrified, but the man seemed to be looking past Julian's Ares, a smirk crept across his face. Andy's voice roared through the comm  
"Julian! Dodge! It's above you!"

Without thinking, or being concerned about what 'it' was, Julian threw his thrusters forward and shot out of the way of whatever was coming down towards him. Looking through his rear monitors, he saw that an orange and red mobile suit had dived down and tried to impale him using a beam sword. As soon as it's feet touched down, the mobile suit activated thrusters and flanked around Julian, placing itself between him and the pair. Julian looked past the new mobile suit to see that a transport shuttle had also touched down, and it was picking up the pair.  
"Damn, Arteron reinforcements?"

* * *

Jillian was impatiently tapping on Reaver's control panel, how Terra conned her into guard duty was beyond her. She was currently sitting around inside the transport ship's cargo bay, not doing anything other then stare at the door and ensure that nothing went wrong. When she got the red alert, it was almost a relief that she had something to do.

The transport ship began it's atmospheric entry, and as soon as it was clear, the bay doors opened and Reaver jumped out. Reaver began free falling until several hundred feet before she was going to hit the ground. Jillian then carefully used the Gundam's thrusters to aim and slow down her fall. Scanning the area, she saw two mobile suits, one moving towards what appeared to her as only specks while she was that high up. Knowing what the suit was advancing to even without seeing them, Jillian pulled out one of her beam swords and planted it out directly in front of her.  
"You're not going to..."

Jillian rocketed down at an unbelievable speed, her blade coming ever closer to cutting right through the enemy mobile suit. Jillian smirked to herself as she got within feet of impaling the enemy, certain that it's fate was sealed. However, at the last moment the suit shot forward, getting out of the way of her strike and moving towards Alan and Legacy's chosen. Seeing this as a danger to the two, Jillian punched on the thrusters and moved around the enemy, placing herself between it and the two. Just as she did this, her comm activated, and she heard something that made her sigh in relief.  
"Reaver, this is transport one, we're collecting the ground forces and Legacy's chosen. Once we're done, we'll get back to the Starflare immediately."  
"good, now I can focus on these two. thank you"

Jillian drew her other sword, dual wielding the two blades.  
"I won't let you two get anywhere near that transport!"

As soon as she said that, Jillian lunged forward towards the suit in front of her, swinging both of it's blades in a violent motion. The opposing suit moved backwards and drew it's rifle, firing at Reaver and hitting it several times with small shots. At this moment, the other suit had flanked around and had drawn it's beam sword, trying to stab it into the back of Jillian's Gundam. Jillian reacted by spinning around and placing one of her swords in the path, blocking the strike. She had made a mistake, however, by turning her back to the suit she was attacking. It drew it's blade as well and lunged forward in an attempt to catch Jillian off guard. This time she retreated, pulling away from her clash and dodging the strike at the same time.

Jillian quickly went on the offensive, launching forward and slashing with her blades furiously at one of the new models. This suit reacted by thrusting backwards in reverse and pulling out it's rifle, firing at Reaver as it retreated backwards. The other new model followed suit, by chasing after the Gundam from behind and firing it's own rifle as it gave pursuit. Quickly realizing the flaw in her attack, Jillian snapped around and slashed at the suit that was chasing her, succeeding in putting a gash in the suit's armor.  
"Not bad for an attack that wasn't aimed."

The suit that Jillian hit wasn't down yet, though. It drew it's blade and made a quick downward slash towards Reaver's arm. In a desperate motion, Jillian threw on the Reaver's thrusters and sent it backwards, briefly loosing control of the Gundam.

This brief moment was all the duo needed to form a counterattack, the one that was undamaged had flanked around to Jillian's back, where it made a slash towards the Gundam's shoulder. The blade went in several inches before Reaver pulled out her Gundam's sidearm, which was a small energy pistol that was hidden on Reaver's thigh. With this gun she fired at the foe's frame several times, causing extensive damage to the suit and putting an end to it's attack.

While the suit was still weakened, Jillian located the other one and sent herself in a direction that was away from both suits. When she was several feet away, she glanced at Reaver's condition screen.  
"Left arm has heavily restricted movement... but that's it, I'm lucky that the cockpit didn't get breached."

Jillian took in a deep breath, collecting her wits for the first time since their battle started.  
"These two can fight... I'm not going to have an easy time overpowering them..."

She looked over at her left camera, where she saw the transport ship that carried Legacy's chosen begin to take off.  
"Well, looks like I don't have to anymore... Thank goodness, time to get out of here!"

While her two opponents charged in for another attack, Jillian activated her thrusters and launched forward, crashing into one of the new models and forcing it onto it's back, Reaver came through the collision relatively unharmed, and continued to take off after the transport shuttle. As she turned her back and retreated back towards the shuttle, she was surprised to see that neither of the ETGF's new models were chasing after her. They remained on the ground, unmoving.  
"Heh... yeah, you better stay put."

The Reaver Gundam smoothly slid into it's cargo bay, and exited the orbit of Mantura without any complications.

* * *

Terra watched her tactical screen aboard the Starflare. On the main monitor in the bridge were several screens that shared the massive space. They each held special cameras and stat screens concerning the two Gundams, as well as Captain Kamaru's Nomura. This way she would see everything on the battlefield in real time.  
"So far so good... Reaver's on standby, Sentinel is with the vanguard force at the checkpoint, and Kamaru is defending Starflare with the main force... All is going according to plan."

Terra's voice had high emphases on the words _so far._ Terra had been a combat strategist for Arteron for several years, and during this time she had come to the realization that no plans ever go exactly perfectly, planning for everything to go perfectly is the same as planning for failure. Terra watched every screen nervously, waiting for the inevitable. Much to Terra's surprise, her plans started going wrong sooner then she would have hoped. On Reaver's screen, there was a display that Jillian was dropping down from the transport ship, towards a pair of ETGF mobile suits. Terra saw disaster looming in the air.  
"Sentinel! Take group B and advance towards Mantura, be ready to support Reaver and the transport shuttle! The enemy has seen Legacy's chosen, and they are now engaging in a battle against Reaver. This means that it's only a matter of time before reinforcements from the main force arrive, be ready to blast your way back to the Starflare and perform a swift retreat once Legacy's chosen is secure."

Terra calmed herself down, she had planned for this, there were contingencies in place for if something like this happened. It would be okay, they would still be able to succeed. Terra's calming thoughts were derailed swiftly, however, when Lilly looked up from her screen.  
"Ms. Terra! I'm picking up a tun of ETGF signals nearby, they're surrounding the Starflare!"

Terra's eyes widened in dismay, no way that the ETGF had located the Starflare this soon. They had been too careful with how they moved, too cautious with their actions.  
"Bring it up on my main monitor!"

Lilly complied, and the cameras and status boards of the mobile suits on the screen was suddenly replaced by a massive view of what was outside the Starflare's front hull, along with a small radar showing a 360 view of the Starflare that took up the bottom right corner. Terra was able to directly see multiple Legionnaire class mobile suits from her screen, but a much larger sight haunted her. The mobile suits were escorting massive missiles that looked as though they would be able to tear the Starflare to pieces if too many of them landed on their targets. Thinking desperately, Terra gripped the arm rests of her chair as she stared at the screen.  
"Dammit! Sentinel, change in plans! Return to the Starflare! Tamaki, are those missiles in range of our antisiege cannons?"

Tamaki looked up from his post to her.  
"No, they're steering way clear of our ship with those, not taking any chances with them."

Terra's grip tightened on her chair, she began glaring at the screen, her eyes focused only on the missiles.  
"Can you tell me at a glance how much power these things are packing?"

Tamaki thought to himself for a moment as he analyzed the scene.  
"The enemies are giving these things a very open range, the only mobile suits even remotely close to these things are engineer models that are programming them... That means that these things can deal some damage, no question about that."

Terra's eyes became locked on the screen, she watched as Captain Kamaru's Nomura squad boldly spread themselves out to protect the entire front part of the Starflare. They were facing an obviously superior force, with superior mobile suits, yet they still placed themselves as the first line of defense. Something about that warmed Terra's heart, she took a mental note to commend each and every pilot involved with this defense once the fighting was over. She began thinking out loud, just in case any of the bridge crew had anything to contribute.  
"They haven't attacked us yet, that means either they're not ready for the attack, or they want to guarintee that it will succeed. This isn't a bad thing though, it gives us plenty of time to come up with a counter measure..."

A full thirty seconds passed in silence. Terra's mind was scrambling to come up with a strategy that would minimize casualties when her mind was jerked off the subject by Lilly, who was reading something off her monitor.  
"Ms. Terra, the transport shuttle has recovered Legacy's chosen, they're on route to the Starflare."

Terra's eyes widened in dismay. Seeing as how the ETGF had the Starflare completely surrounded, it would be child's play for them to intercept or destroy the ship before it even showed up on the Starflare's radar.  
"What!? No! Tell them to change their course, send them anywhere but here! We'll send them a message once we've survived this battle."  
"Understood... message sent, Ms. Terra"

Terra let out a relieved sigh, it was a small action, but it had prevented a total disaster for Arteron. Her mind was quickly returned to the problem at hand, however, when Tamaki looked up from his station with a worried look.  
"They've fired the first missile!"

Terra looked up at the screen to see that there was a missile roaring towards the Starflare, she began speaking quickly, trying her best not to panic.  
"Quickly, fire the antisiege cannons! Destroy that thing before it hits us!"

Tamaki nodded, and suddenly, two massive light blue beams roared out of the hull of the Starflare towards the missile. One of the beams punctured through and caused it to explode. However, it was rather close to the Starflare before they were able to destroy it, so the explosion caused the ship to violently shake. Terra gasped as she was rocked in her chair, she returned her gaze to the screen.  
"What was that?"  
"It wasn't a direct hit, but these missiles are extremely fast, if they were to send too many at us at one time, there's no way we'd be able to stop them all."

Terra lowered her head as she began to brainstorm.  
"This is bad, this is bad... This is very, very bad"

The Starflare was completely surrounded without any chance of escape, and they were in danger of being ripped apart by massive explosives because of a trap set by the ETGF. Terra wasn't exaggerating when she stated that the situation was bad.

* * *

Julian gasped as the red mobile suit rammed directly into his Ares' hull. His suit was forced onto it's back while the red one made a smooth escape. Andy came forward and helped his suit rise to it's feet, his voice coming over the comm while he did.  
"You alright?"

Julian shook his head, more embarrassed then injured.  
"Yeah, I just didn't expect the enemy pilot to be that... that... reckless."  
"I hear you, we're in for an uphill battle if there's very many more suits like those in Arteron"

Julian looked through his rear camera to see the mobile suit sliding into the transport shuttle that had collected the young girl and the man.  
"Hey Andy, let's go after them."

Andy took several seconds to respond.  
"Hang on a second, new orders coming in from Mr. Agro... We're going to meet up with the rest of the Ares blades and attack an Arteron force that's just outside of Mantura's orbit, we'll have to forget about the transport shuttle for now."

Both of the Ares units activated their thrusters and took off into the air, heading towards the location sent by Mr. Agro as the rendezvous spot. After about a minute of flying, they could pick up other Ares signals on their radars. And as they got even closer, three units rose into the air, pointing their rifles at the two newcomers.

Julian's paused in surprise, he activated his comm and started speaking to the other Ares units.  
"Hey, we're friendlies, put down the weapons would you?"

A response came quickly, and sent a chill down Julian's spine.  
"Julian Arrowind, you are being accused of treason against the Earth Territory Guardian Force, as well as being an Arteron agent."  
"W- What!? On what grounds!?"

A video recording showed up on his screen, showing Julian rushing over and pushing Andy's rifle out of the path of the couple. Julian's heart plummeted while he watched this, he understood where they were coming from when they accused him of treason. But he was still intent on defending himself, defending his actions.  
"Hang on, you've got the wrong idea, I was just trying to-"

Several warning shots rang past Julian's suit.  
"That's enough, power down your suit and surrender now."

Julian began to shudder a little, he wasn't sure what he was going to do until he heard Andy speak over the same channel.  
"Hang on, Julian's no traitor! He was just-"

The same voice as before spoke, however, no shots went towards Andy's suit  
"Lieutenant Andrew Mann, siding with somebody who as been accused of treason will get you accused of a similar offense"  
"But you can't-"

Andy was about to ruin his career before Julian flicked his comm over to a personal channel, he spoke in a defeated and quiet tone.  
"Let it go, Andy."  
"But Julian!"  
"Do you remember the oath we made all those years ago? Can't keep it if both of us are branded as traitors... We both know how the system works, I'm already guilty regardless of what anybody says."

Andy didn't respond, the comm was shut off and his Ares began slowly sinking to the ground. Julian couldn't help but shed a tear, as he knew this would likely be the last time he would ever see his best, and only friend.  
"Goodbye, Andy..."

The three Ares units began to approach him, and Julian knew that he was restricted to two choices when it came to his next action. He could either surrender, and die on the spot. Or he could flee, and at least have a slight chance at surviving.  
"Lieutenant Julian Arrowind, power down your suit and surrender at once, no further warnings will be given."

After less than a second of thought, Julian decided not to comply. He spun his suit around and rocketed off towards the orbit at full speed. The three suits began pursuing him and firing rapidly. But because of the speed they had to maintain, their accuracy was far from perfect and it was easy for the fleeing suit to dodge the oncoming fire. Julian's mind was more focused on what came next, after he managed to shake off the three oncoming Ares models.

Unsure of where his future would take him, Julian continued his flight away from Mantura as he forced his way into the outside orbit.

* * *

Jillian's face glowed red with frustration as she received the most recent update.  
"What do you mean the Starflare's under attack!? Are you really going to drop me off here so I can go back them up?"

The pilot of the transport confirmed this, after receiving a message from the Starflare about it's situation, he decided to send out the Reaver to support the ship, while the transport found a good place to hide and wait for the battle to end.  
"But then who's going to defend the transport if they find you?"  
"We have to put faith in the idea that they won't find us, the Starflare can't survive without your help, Jillian"

Jillian looked away from the camera, she really didn't like this idea, but it was something she had to do.  
"Fine, drop me off here."

The door in the transport ship opened, and the Reaver Gundam flew out into the void of space. Jillian checked her radar, she saw a small group of ETGF suits heading towards Sentinel and his Nomura squad. Since the development of the Starflare being under attack, Sentinel had decided to return to the ship and aid in the defense, be cause of this, the Sentinel group was falling back. Regardless, the ETGF group was quickly gaining ground on them. Jillian thought to herself for a moment before she came to the decision that she would go meet up with Sentinel and his group. This would allow them to defeat the ETGF group faster and arrive at the Starflare to provide more timely reinforcements.

She nodded to herself, activating the Reaver's thrusters to full speed as she began to intercept the pursuing group. Jillian kept a diligent eye on her radar as she continued moving towards the group. The ETGF group had managed to catch up to Sentinel's group, and it was clear from the radar that the two groups were now in a firefight. Wishing that the Gundam could move faster, Jillian began preparing several of her weapons, so that she could dive right into the battle when she arrived.  
"Tch, can't forget about that damage to the left arm I took..."

After another minute in full speed, Jillian was able to see the battle visually, Sentinel and his group was deeply stuck in a brutal firefight with several of the new models that Jillian had encountered earlier. She paused in shock for a moment when she saw exactly what they were up against.  
"I had a rough time against two of these... now there's so many more..."

She shook her head and returned to her senses, she activated her claw lances and drew a blade in one hand with her rifle in the other. In a preemptive strike, Jillian fired her claw lances into the back of a new model, then spun to the right and fired swiftly at another one. Two were destroyed in a matter of seconds, and before they realized that she had appeared, Jillian rocketed forward and pierced a third model's engine with her blade. Having destroyed three in a brutal first strike, Jillian was feeling rather proud of herself. Eric's ever calm voice rang out over her comm as she saw him pierce an opponent's head with a beautifully placed sniper shot.  
"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes. Welcome to the party"

Jillian smirked as she put her rifle away and drew a second blade.  
"Well, maybe you don't seem too worried about this, maybe I'll just take my services elsewhere."  
"Nah, you're welcome here any day."

The Nomura units were struggling to withstand the new model's brutal attack, and even with the two Gundams in the battle, several of them were destroyed. Even with the aid of Jillian's attack, it was clear that the new models were overpowering the Nomura units. One of the ETGF models moved in towards Jillian's back, thrusting a blade towards the cockpit. Jillian remembered this tactic from her previous battle with these new models and adapted quickly. She spun around to face it, placing one of her blades in the path of the attack and using her other arm to return the favor, stabbing through the cockpit of the model. Jillian glanced over to see how her allies were doing, and saw Sentinel batting away three enemies with the help of the automatic turrets that Eric loved so much. She heard a small conversation in the cockpit of the Sentinel, rather or not Eric knew the comm was on, she didn't know.  
"Just keep those turrets firing, Haro"

Jillian chuckled a little bit as she heard an adorable robotic voice respond to him.  
"Firing, Firing!"

While Jillian was still watching, Eric used the automatic turrets to distract the enemies, and keep them dodging while he lined up his shots. Using the turrets to force them into the path of his rifle, Eric let out three distinct shots from his rifle, each one puncturing and destroying one of the dodging suits. Jillian couldn't help but respect Eric a bit for that. Using a defensive mechanism to outsmart his opposition.

Thanks to the combined efforts of the Gundams, as well as the remaining Nomura units, Jillian was sure that it was only a matter of time before they managed to defeat this force. Her heart suddenly froze, however, when she remembered that the Starflare was still struggling. She began to worry about rather or not her and Eric would be able to make it in time to help. Jillian bit her lip as she engaged another opponent.  
"I'm sorry Terra, hold out for just a bit longer... please"

* * *

Julian continued his flight from the pursuing Ares units, he knew that taking them on would be nothing short of idiotic, so the best thing he could do was continue to run away and hope for some sort of miracle. During this time he had received serious damage to his mobile suit, because of the near nonstop fire coming from his pursuers, it was unavoidable that he was eventually going to take a shot or two. However, Julian got the idea that they were starting to run out of ammo, as their shots slowly became more infrequent and they started relying more on a team oriented firing pattern to keep constant fire on him. However, Julian wasn't even going to consider the idea of a counterattack until he was absolutely sure that they had nothing left, and even then he had to be careful not to get too close to their blades.

The pursuit lasted for what seemed like ages to Julian, and he kept his eyes glued to his rear cameras without even glancing at what was ahead of him. Eventually, he saw the three units pull back, they actually started to retreat. This was absolutely shocking to Julian, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Returning his attention to the forward camera, he began to realize what exactly encouraged the ammunition depleted mobile suits to retreat.

Julian was heading right towards a massive battle between an army of Legionnaires, and a massive Arteron frigate. His eyes widened as he saw several missiles heading towards the ship, which was somehow managing to keep up a defensive barrage that destroyed them all before they reached the ship. Regardless, the ship was taking extensive damage, and from what Julian could tell, they wouldn't be able to last much longer. Turning his attention to what was going on outside the ship, he saw Arteron mobile suits engaging the Legionnaires, and they were holding their ground admirably well.

Julian watched the battle, realizing that at this rate, it was only a matter of time before the Arteron forces were overwhelmed and destroyed.  
"Well... since I've already come this far..."

Julian threw his Ares into full acceleration, he saw a Legionnaire about to stab through a Nomura suit, acting quickly he drew his blade and sliced across the Legionnaire's stomach. He withdrew before the ensuing explosion, drawing his rifle and firing multiple times at a second Legionnaire that was overpowering another Nomura. Bringing down his second one, a voice came across his comm, the voice of an old man that Julian assumed was in charge of the Arteron fleet.  
"You, unknown pilot! State your name now!"

Julian understood perfectly well why they wouldn't trust him. He was in a new model ETGF mobile suit, after all.  
"This is Julian Arrowing with... formerly with the ETGF. Certain circumstances have forced me to defect from them in order to save my own life."

The voice responded quickly, with a reply that shocked Julian.  
"Alright, I believe you. You wouldn't shoot down two of your own men just to gain our trust."  
"Th- thank you sir"  
"The Starflare's having a rough time of it right now. Perhaps that new model of yours is just what we need to hold the line."  
"You can count on me."

Julian focused his attention on protecting the Nomura models, any Legionnaires that was about to destroy a nearby Nomura was a top priority target for Julian. Through his actions he managed to rescue several damaged mobile suits, and he actually managed to push back the ETGF's offensive. The same voice as before came through Julian's comm, with a relieved and shocked voice.  
"I can't believe it, they're pulling back! We've actually pushed back their first wave!"

Julian smiled at this, he couldn't help but feel that he was vital to this occuring.  
"That's great!"

There was a small pause before he spoke again.  
"I've got to rally the men... Kid, they want to see you in the Starflare."

Julian nodded to himself.  
"That's understandable, I'm off"

Julian made his way to the Staflare's bay, expecting a rather cold reception when he arrived. He landed inside and powered down his Ares, then he opened the cockpit door and stepped out. As he expected, he saw two security personnel standing nearby with rifles at the ready. However, they didn't seem actively hostile, Julian realized that he may have earned their trust from what took place in the outside battle. After a few seconds, a blond woman stepped through the door into the bay, and walked up to him.  
"Your name is Julian Arrowind, correct?"  
"Yes, that's it."

Julian realized that she was analyzing him, perhaps trying to get an idea for his motive for betraying the ETGF.  
"My name is Terra, walk with me Julian"  
"Of, of course"

As they stepped through the halls of the Starflare, Julian shared his story with Terra. He told her about his orders to appear at Mantura, his encounter with Legacy's chosen, and how the ETGF accused him of treason. During this time, Julian noticed that he was getting several glances from members of Arteron, not surprising, since he was wearing an ETGF flight suit. At the end of his story, Terra seemed to trust Julian a bit more, she spoke to him in a kinder tone as well.  
"Well, I believe it. If you were still against us, it would have been a simple matter of helping the ETGF... We would have been done for."

Julian nodded, smiling  
"I'm glad you see it that way."

Terra deeply inhaled as she stopped right in front of the bridge.  
"It's only a matter of minutes before the ETGF regains their bearings and attacks us again, likely with more force than before. I would like to ask for you ongoing help in pushing them back, however. Your mobile suit is so heavily damaged that I don't think it's even going to start again... You called it an 'Ares' right?"  
"Yeah, it's an Ares, and if you just have another one of those Nomura models laying around, I can take that."

Terra shook her head  
"I'm afraid we don't... But I'm sure that Sentinel and Reaver will arrive soon, we can handle this. Just sit tight aboard the Starflare, we'll figure out a use for you in a little while."

Julian watched her as she went into the bridge.  
"Sentinel and Reaver... was she talking about that hyper advanced suit that I fought earlier?"

Julian shook his head, and after a few more glares he decided to head to the storage bay and trade out his flight suit for an Arteron make.

About five minutes later, Julian was wearing an Arteron flight suit, and fitting in quite a bit more. He was going through the halls towards a viewing port where he could keep tabs on the action, when he felt a violent vibration shake the entire ship. This was all the indication he needed that the ETGF had resumed their attack, as well as gotten another near hit with one of their missiles. Changing his plans, Julian rushed down to the bays of the Starflare, and he began to check each and every one.  
"Terra told him that there were no more Nomura models. But what if there was a fighter plane, or... or"

Julian came to a halt because he had just laid eyes on the most beautiful mobile suit he had ever seen. It's paint job alternated between white and gold, and he could see a gigantic sword attached to it's back, with a golden rifle attached to it's lower waist. Just taking in the sight of such a thing took several moments for Julian to calculate. But eventually, he came back to his senses.  
"... That'll work"

Julian rushed over and climbed into the cockpit. Something felt odd about this whole situation, Arteron had another hyper advanced suit but they weren't using it. The cockpit was open and the suit basically invited anybody who desired it to climb aboard. As he pushed the activation button, though, Julian had to redefine his definition of unusual. The cockpit slammed shut and the whole area filled with a green light. Julian felt like he was being studied for a few moments. And on the dash panel in front of him, he saw his name appear in big gold letters.  
"Julian Arrowind, analyzing... analyzing... analyzing..."

Julian's eyes widened  
"What's it doing!?"

Terra's voice suddenly rang through the suit's speakers, nearly deafening Julian with how loud she was shouting.  
"What's going on in there!? Who's in that cockpit!?"  
"It's me, Julian!"

The voice got quieter as the speakers adapted to the noise level, but Julian could tell she was not being any quieter on her end.  
"What are you doing in there!?"  
"Well, I just thought I would help, and this awesome mobile suit is just chilling around here... So I just thought I'd borrow it. I'll bring it right back when this battle's over though, I promise"  
"Are you kidding me!? You can't 'just borrow' a Gundam! You have to be chosen for it!"  
"Chosen, huh..."

The green light in the cockpit faded away, replaced by the familiar glow of regular lighting. Several control panels suddenly appeared at Julian's command, and the main camera came to life to show Julian the dark bay that he was in.  
"Well hey! I think it likes me!"

Terra must have been able to see that the Gundam activated, because her voice calmed down quite a bit.  
"I can't believe this... I really can't"  
"Terra, let me out there... With this baby I can really do some damage!"

The battle outside clearly wasn't going well, because Terra's response came quicker than Julian expected.  
"Fine, but you better live up to your boasting, Julian"  
"You got it."

Julian felt the ground below him beginning to lift as small clamps took hold of his Gundam's feet. He felt himself feel the all too familiar sensation of being shoved forward aboard these launching docks.  
"Say Terra... You said this was a Gundam right? Does it... like... have a name? Like Reaver and Sentinel?"  
"It does, Valiant... It's the Valiant Gundam"

Julian shut his eyes and reflected on that.  
"Valiant Gundam... I like it"

His eyes opened with a new type of conviction, as though being behind the controls of Valiant truly made him feel alive for the first time in his life.  
"This is Julian Arrowind piloting the Valiant Gundam, they won't get past me!"

With those last words, Julian was thrown out of the bay and into the void of space. From just the first few seconds of being behind the controls, Julian knew that the Valiant was something special. Even compared to the Ares, every move he made, every turn he performed felt so natural and instinctive. Almost as though Julian himself was out there doing the actions. Even while he was just moving towards the ongoing struggle, Julian felt a special bond with the Gundam, as though he would never be able to pilot a different mobile suit ever again. In this way, the Valiant felt special to Julian. He had to wonder if the pilot of that Red Gundam felt the same way, and if so, why were they so reckless with their suit.

Julian couldn't afford to sit on these thoughts for very long, however, as he came to realize that Arteron was having a very rough time repelling the second ETGF wave. Julian rushed in and drew the massive blade on his back, he watched in awe as it glowed with red power as soon as it came free from Valiant's back. A legionnaire saw his attack coming and put up his beam sword to block the oncoming dive. And Julian was shocked to discover that the Valiant's blade pierced right through the beam sword and sliced the Legionnaire in two as though it were made of butter. Julian adapted to this incredible strength, blazing through the infinitely weaker Legionnaires with incredible speed.

For this time, Julian felt that he was truly invincible. He felt as though he could take on a thousand Legionnaires and come through unscathed. However, when the ETGF's forces realized the true threat on the battlefield, a majority of the Legionnaires focused their fire exclusively on the Valiant. Suffering from the concentrated fire, Julian's feeling of invincibility faded away quickly. Luckily, before the Gundam received any serious damage, multiple Nomura suits went on the offensive and took a lot of the pressure off of Julian.

With the aid of the newly arrived Valiant, the battle was now even. Tragically, Julian was so focused on the opposing mobile suits that he completely forgot about the missiles that they brought along with them. These missiles were giving the Starflare an insanely hard time, as they were getting closer to the ship and causing even more damage with each one that was sent at them. By the time Julian realized his error, the ETGF was sending all three of their remaining missiles at the Starflare at the same time, and judging from the Starflare's current condition, if even one of those missiles got through, it would be over.

Julian acted quickly, putting his sword away and drawing the rifle. He took aim at one of the missiles and fired, an incredibly powerful red beam roared out of the weapon and pierced through the missile, destroying it before it even became a threat to the ship. And thanks to expert firing aboard the Starflare, the second one was destroyed while only dealing minimal damage to the ship. However, the third one went through smoothly, and by the time that Julian even located the third one, it was too late for him to fire. Because at such a close distance, the explosive force would be enough to destroy the Starflare, even without a direct collision.

Julian's eyes widened with panic.  
"No!"

However, something that Julian didn't foresee took place. A shot rang out smoothly, cutting through the tip of the missile and stopping it dead in it's tracks. Whoever fired that shot was a master marksman, as they managed to hit the missile right in it's explosive chamber. Because of that, the missile was no longer an immediate threat to blowing up and destroying the Starflare.

When it realized that the missiles were now completely gone, the Starflare used it's newfound maneuverability to accelerate itself away from the missile. Once it was a safe distance away, a similar shot pierced the missile again, detonating it without causing any harm to the ship. It took Julian a few moments to realize that reinforcements had arrived, as he wasn't able to properly calculate what had happened over the last few moments. All of it had happened so fast that Julian didn't know exactly what to think.

Returning his attention to the space battle, he saw a complete confirmation that reinforcements, had indeed, arrived. The Red Gundam that Julian fought earlier that day was leading a small pack of Nomura units towards the ETGF's flank, while a black and dark blue Gundam holding a sniper rifle kept his distance and fired several cool rounds into the Legionnaires. Julian pinned the black Gundam as the one that expertly took down the missile, and he couldn't help but feel very reassured to have such a pilot around.

Realizing that their battle was lost, the remaining ETGF forces pulled away and retreated, causing Julian to hold a mini-celebration in the cockpit of Valiant.  
"I can't believe that we actually did it!"

Apparently his comm was still on, as Terra's voice came ringing through  
"In no small part thanks to you, Julian. Thank you for doing what you did"  
"Heh, no problem"

Julian heard a rather relaxed man's voice enter the conversation.  
"Hey, are my eyes lying to me, or do I see the Valiant Gundam out here fighting?"

Julian smirked, responding to the voice  
"You know it"

Terra's voice came back through, giving orders.  
"Alright people... Return to the ship, we've won this one"

Julian piloted Valiant back to the Starflare, in high spirits.

* * *

About ten minutes later, Julian was sitting in the briefing room. It was only him, Terra, and the old man that Julian spoke to when he first encountered the battle, a man named Captain Kamaru. Terra spoke to Julian, trying to settle some personal matters.  
"Several people aboard the ship saw you in the ETGF flight suit... no doubt they're going to have a hard time trusting you. If they ask, you were an undercover double agent for us the whole time... got it?"

Julian nodded in understanding as the door opened. He turned his head to see two people enter. One was a man with long blond hair, seemed like a laid back person, Julian pinned him as the black Gundam's pilot. The other was a positively beautiful girl about Julian's age, knowing that she had to the the pilot of the Red Gundam, Julian smiled a bit to himself. If he was now officially an Arteron pilot, a Gundam pilot, then perhaps he'd have a chance with her. He decided that it was something to reach for, and he returned his attention to Terra as the two newcomers took their seats.

Terra began speaking again when the room was settled in. Julian couldn't help but notice that the blond man had propped his feet up on the table.  
"First and foremost... As you two no doubt know by now, we've got a pilot for the Valiant Gundam. Eric, Jillian... Meet Julian"

Julian nods before his eyes widen in humor.  
_"Wait... her name is Jillian?"_

Eric also noticed this, chuckling a bit to himself_  
_"well how about that... His name is Julian... Isn't that funny, Jillian, Julian?"

Jillian rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed by the situation.  
"Oh yes, ha ha... we have similar sounding names...."

Julian shrugged, smiling at Jillian  
"Could be worse."

The whole room appeared to be in high spirits, and even Terra was about to chuckle a little bit before a young female voice came through the speakers into the room.  
"Ms. Terra, we have a message from the Transport ship carrying Legacy's chosen"

Terra's face became serious again as she turned to the source of the voice.  
"What is it?"

The voice was reluctant to respond, and she spoke in a dead tone when she did.  
"Discovered by ETGF... Legacy's chosen captured... everybody else dead"

Terra's eyes widened in shock  
"... No..."

Julian didn't have any idea what Legacy's chosen was, or why it was important, but he could tell from the sudden tone shift in the room that things had gone from good to bad. The voice on the other side continued to speak.  
"Devil's eye..."

Terra paused in confusion while Julian stiffened up in shock. Terra thought aloud.  
"Devil's eye? What's that?"

Julian spoke quietly, looking down.  
"It's a top secret ETGF prison on Earth. State of the art security... Hidden extremely well, a natural fortress"

Jillian eyed Julian suspiciously.  
"Wait... if it's top secret then how do you know about it?"

Terra cut her off.  
"That's not important, Julian. I want all the information on the Devil's eye you can give me... We're going to Earth.

* * *

After about a half an hour of daunting questions, Julian exited the briefing room to find Jillian and Eric waiting for him. He straightened up and gave the two of the a polite smile as Eric stepped up with an extended hand.  
"Name's Eric, I pilot the Sentinel Gundam."

Julian shook it, nodding.  
"You're the one that made that badass shot on the missile a while back, right?"

Eric smile a bit, turning away in embarrassment  
"nah, that's not something I can do... that shot was all Haro"  
"Haro?"

Eric pointed to a small robotic ball that was floating around nearby, Eric grabbed him and placed him in front of Julian  
"Haro here's my co-pilot, isn't that right lil' buddy"  
"Co-pilot, Co-pilot!"

Julian laughed a little bit, turning to Jillian, who spoke with her arms crossed and giving Julian a bit of a glare.  
"And I'm Jillian, Reaver's pilot"

Julian took a step towards her, smiling kindly as he replied.  
"It's very nice to meet you, Jillian."

She raised an eyebrow at this, take a matching step backwards.  
"What's with you?"  
"Nothing, how about you give me a tour of the ship, I'm new aboard the Starflare"  
"tch, fine, I guess..."

As Jillian took off down a hallway, Julian had to actually keep a light jog to keep up at first. To say that Jillian was power walking was an understatement. Eric smiled as he watched the two go off.  
"I'll tell you Haro, love's in the air between those two."  
"Got it, Got it!"

**End**

and so part 2 is done. I hope you enjoyed my most recent installment. And if you see anything that I can improve upon, please don't hesitate to bring it to my attention.

Next time on Mobile Suit: Legacy Gundam- Movement 3: Legacy  
... Who will survive? (Sorry, couldn't resist)


	3. Mvt 3: Legacy

Greetings again, and thank you for your continued viewership of _Mobile Suit: Legacy Gundam_. Just as a bit of a notice, I plan on going back to writing chapter 3 of my _Conflict of the Rift_ story after this, so this story won't be updated for a while. But, that all really depends on how much of a writing mood I'm in over the next few weeks, we'll see. Regardless of all that, I hope you enjoy the third installment of _Mobile Suit: Legacy Gundam_.

Oh, and as usual: I don't own Gundam or anything related to Gundam.

* * *

**Mobile Suit: Legacy Gundam**

**Movement 3- Legacy**

Sparks of battle filled the sky as the Valiant Gundam and the Reaver Gundam went head to head. Tapping the control panel of his Gundam quickly and with professional skill, Julian easily gained the upper hand against his opponent. After a few simulation battles against Jillian, he came to understand that the Valiant had two primary weapons, the sword and the rifle. Being the creative genius that he was, Julian quickly gave both of these weapons the same name as the Gundam.

Drawing the Valiant sword, Julian charged at the smaller Gundam with speed that almost matched Reaver. He had come to understand that, because he was a much more experienced pilot than Jillian, the Valiant was able to unleash more of it's power, this also went a long way towards explaining why Julian performed so well in the recent battle over Mantura. Caught off guard once again by the Valiant's alarming speed, Jillian was forced to activate full thrusters and spin out of the way, momentarily loosing control of her Gundam. Continuing the attack swiftly, Julian pulled out the Valiant rifle with the Gundam's left hand, however, two hands were needed to lift the Valiant sword. This caused the blade to slowly fall to his side as the right hand alone couldn't keep it up.

Taking aim within the second, Julian fired several powerful golden blasts at Reaver. However, Jillian was able to regain control of her Gundam and dodge the shots in a much smoother and more effective way. The pilot of the Valiant couldn't help but watch and be impressed as she did this, he reflected on the girl's fighting ability in his mind.  
_"Oh yeah, she's got talent... She just needs to learn how to use it"_

His mental reflection was cut short when the cameras showed Reaver charging at him with two beam swords drawn and ready to strike. Julian dodged the strike easily by rolling to the left, while he rolled, he let go of the rifle and tossed it behind him. Because of some sort of magnetic attraction, the rifle actually snapped quickly back into it's spot without Julian having to do anything, a very useful little mechanic to be sure. Having both hands available to hold the sword again, Julian swung it across Reaver's stomach right at the end of his dodge. As proof that she was getting more adapted to fighting against Valiant, Jillian used the simulated gravity to lower herself under the swing, she then activated her thrusters into full reverse in order to put some distance between her and the Valiant. Once a few feet had been cleared, she opened the hidden compartments on the Reaver's shoulders and fired her claw lances.

Expecting a frontal assault from the rather unusual weapons, Julian moved backwards to avoid them. Needless to say, he was caught off guard when the lances passed behind him and looped around, digging into Valiant's back. After seeing the damage on his screen, Julian's eyes widened in alarm.  
"What the-"

Julian was forced to concentrate and think quickly when he was suddenly ripped forward towards the charging Reaver, who was trying to impale Valiant by holding both swords out in front of it's body. The Valiant sword wasn't an option, as it was too bulky for him to effectively swing in the situation, and the rifle wasn't an option because the barrel was too long for him to properly aim at the chains. The scene lasted somewhere around two seconds as Julian glanced around the control panel, seeing an option out of the situation that he didn't previously know he had. Pulling a beam sword off Valiant's thigh, Julian sliced through the chains with ease and ducked under the swinging Reaver, which placed him directly under the Gundam's exposed body.

Sending the sword up, Julian stabbed through Revaver's chest. The battle was over, Julian reminded himself to thank Reaver's pilot for that battle, as he would have never learned about Valiant's hidden beam sword without her help. As sky turned to steel, and control panel turned to metal plates with holographic screens, Julian stepped out of the large metal cube that served as the simulated cockpit. Looking across the room, he saw Jillian also step out of hers, as opposed to the usual temper tantrum that she regularly threw whenever she lost, she just looked worn out and tired. That was to be expected though, as she had battled against the Valiant several times over the last few hours. Stepping over to the tired girl, Julian smiled and offered a hand.  
"You've stepped your game up, I had no idea that you could aim those claw lances of yours."

Jillian swatted his hand away as she responded.  
"Oh yeah? Neither did I, I'm pretty sure that it only recently became an option."

Jillian turned her back to the young man, leaving the simulator room.  
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with my bed."

As she stepped out the door, Julian called out after her.  
"Hey, maybe we should try one of the other programs some time, the simulator can do more than just one on one battles you know. It would be a good chance for more direct training."

Jillian's response came quickly, not even glancing back as she kept on walking.  
"Oh buzz off!"

Julian wished that he were more surprised by Jillian's words, but obviously she still wasn't fond of Valiant's pilot. This was nothing new, as the word that he was an ETGF pilot had spread around the ship like wildfire, despite Terra's best efforts to suppress them. Over the last day, Julian was treated as an outsider to the ship. He had reflected on how they would treat him if he wasn't a Gundam pilot, and the thought made him shiver.

Stepping out of the simulator room, Julian made his way to the mobile suit docking bay, where one of the only people on the entire ship that was willing to talk to him was waiting for his arrival. The two of them had hatched a little bit of a plan that was sure to help out the Starflare a great deal, both from a morale standpoint as well as a combat readiness one.

* * *

Captain Kamaru was on his way to the docking bay for the mobile suits, apparently somebody had requested his presence there, although he couldn't for the life of him imagine why. He had been very busy recently trying to help the young man that had found himself in the cockpit of the Valiant. He had encountered him on the battlefield, and Kamaru was sure that the boy's intentions were true. Unfortunately, nobody else aboard the Starflare aside from Terra shared his opinion. Eventually deciding that time would show that the boy was loyal to Arteron, Kamaru had made his way to his private quarters, where a message was waiting that said for him to make his way to the mobile suit docking bay.

Stepping through the doors, he found a surprise waiting for him, two Gundam pilots were sitting at the nearby table and were chatting between themselves. The newcomer, Julian, and the man that had piloted a Gundam longer than any of the others, Eric. Once Captain Kamaru stepped through the doors, Eric stood up, sliding a hand into his pocket while Julian took the lead, speaking to the Captain with a grin on his face.  
"Hey, Captain... Eric and I were talking about something and we had to bring it up to you."

Kamaru looked between the two Gundam pilots, Julian was clearly looking forward to this conversation, and even Eric showed a few slight signs of anticipation in the way he moved around. For instance, his eyes were a little brighter then usual, and he fidgeted around just slightly more then usual. It was nothing obvious, but to somebody that knew Eric for as long as Kamaru had, it was enough to show. If this made even Eric eager to see what happened, then it was clearly something pretty important. Kamaru answered Julian's question with a raised eyebrow, quite curious about what this was about.  
"Oh? And what exactly would that be."

Julian chuckled to himself, his eyes bright with anticipation when he spoke.  
"Well, since I'm piloting the Valiant Gundam now... I obviously won't be needing the Ares anymore... Right?"

Kamaru crossed his arms, he suddenly had an idea of what this whole conversation was about.  
"Right."

Eric cut in, speaking in a slightly more active voice then normal, but still sounding extremely laid back.  
"Julian came to me with this great idea. Since we've already learned everything we can about this new 'Ares' mobile suit... Why not dismantle it and use it's pieces to enhance your Nomura? You'd be way more dangerous then you are right now with a mobile suit like that."

Kamaru spoke in a stern voice to show his seriousness, he had already resolved on his morals concerning this topic. He had turned down the chance to pilot a Gundam for this very same reason.  
"Absolutely not, I fight on the exact same level as those beneath me. Unless every single Nomura aboard the ship is getting the same upgrade, count me out."

Eric pulled his hand out of his pocket, revealing a rolled up piece of paper, which he un-rolled and glanced at.  
"I knew you'd say that, so I went ahead and got a petition from every single pilot aboard the Starflare... They all agreed that you deserve the overhaul... They want you to have it"

Eric held the paper out in front of him so that Kamaru could see it, there was a small paragraph describing the overhaul, and indeed, there was a signature from every pilot that flew alongside the Captain into battle. Seeing the desires of his men laid out in front of him, Kamaru lowered his head in a sign of amused defeat. If it was the wish of his men, who was he to be so selfish as to deny it.  
"Very well then, go ahead with the overhaul"

Eric smirked a bit, deciding to drive the situation a little further home then he had to.  
"Oh, Engineering has already dismantled both suits, they've promised that it'll be done before we reach Earth."

Kamaru couldn't help but smile, even though it came from Eric's mouth, the promise coming from engineering proved in a way that they also wanted the overhaul to happen. Dismantling and reassembling a mobile suit within a few days was no small matter. Deciding to go along with the playful atmosphere, Kamaru spoke quietly with a bright look in his eye.  
"Fine then, just remember that you asked for this when I outshine your fancy Gundams"

* * *

Cecilia didn't speak, she didn't move, she didn't even breathe more then she had to. All she knew was that something had gone horribly wrong during the trip from Mantura to the Starflare. Apparently the ship was under attack, and they had to change course. After laying in wait and hiding for what felt like a lifetime to Cecilia, they felt a massive metal scraping noise on the roof of the shuttle. Immediately going into action, Alan pushed Cecilia down under the chairs and handed out rifles to the few men aboard the ship. The doors at the end of the shuttle were forced open by a single finger from a mobile suit, and several ETGF agents came charging into the ship, firing at the men. After a relatively short firefight, the ETGF agents had overpowered the Arteron forces.

As the ETGF soldiers spread throughout the ship, Cecilia knew it was only a matter of time before they found her. And when they did, they were going to kill her. Shivering in panic, Cecilia couldn't stop herself from letting out a terrified squeal as one of them passed dangerously close to the seat she was hiding under. A few seconds passed, and the man knelt down to see her under the seat. Confused at first, he quickly came to realize exactly who she was. He grabbed her arm and pulled her from her hiding spot, shouting to the others while Cecilia started to weep in terror.  
"Sir! I think I found that 'Legacy's chosen' girl that we're after!"

Several other soldiers looked over at her, and one of them, who was obviously the group leader, looked the young girl over.  
"Yes, she certainly fits the description... Cuff her, we've got orders to take her to Earth... Devil's eye"

Several of the soldiers looked over in surprise, even though the sound of Devil's eye was far from pleasant, the fact that she wasn't dieing just yet was enough to calm her down just a little bit. Not even trying to resist, Cecilia went with the soldiers after they placed constraints on her wrists. As they left, Cecilia could have sworn that she saw the slightest amount of movement coming from Alan. None of the soldiers saw it though, so Cecilia decided that she had imagined it.

Once aboard the transport shuttle used by the ETGF, Cecilia was sat down in one of the prisoner's seats and had a sort of collar placed around her neck to prevent her from escaping. She figured that it was likely electric, or something, but she wasn't in much of a mood to resist anything at the moment. Hours passed, but in her state of mind, Cecilia couldn't tell exactly how much time had passed. She was left alone in the prisoner bay as the soldiers were in the more lighthearted parts of the ship. Alone to think and reflect on all the things that had happened around her, she was a fool to agree to go with Alan, she should have run away and gone back home whenever she had the chance. She may have been miserable during her old life, but at least she wasn't some sort of top secret convict or anything of the sort. One foolish mistake had warped her entire life.

Had Cecilia been in a better mindset, or thought on the subject more, she may have remembered that it was the ETGF that had made the first move, it was them that had tried to arrest her before she agreed to anything. But as things stood now, she didn't want to think about anything other then how foolish she was. After what could have been a lifetime for all she cared, they finally touched down on the Earth, and Cecilia could feel the natural pull of Gravity weigh down on her. Odd though, this gravity was different from that on Mantura, it was heavier, more oppressive. Cecilia might have thought it was annoying, but she was in such a state of defeat that it really didn't matter. The soldiers came and freed her from her collar, then they led her into a massive and dark prison. After a few moments of looking around, Cecilia realized that she was at the Devil's eye.

The walls were painted black, paint that was chipping and fading away to reveal massive concrete and brick that prevented any internal escape. Black curtains and random chains hung from the ceiling, their only purpose seemed to deliver a more oppressive atmosphere. The lights were in a permanent state of blinking on and off, this also served to dampen the mood of the place. All and all, Cecilia got the feeling that she was completely powerless to stop anything from happening to her, which may have been exactly what the ETGF was going for when they designed this miserable place.

Cecilia counted her blessings when she got her own personal cell, she didn't even want to imagine the things that would happen if she was stuck with another prisoner that deserved to be in a place like this. Sitting on her pathetic excuse for a bed, Cecilia started to break down. Her entire life had been thrown upside down over the course of one day, and nothing she said or did could change her situation. She had nobody to talk to, nobody back home that missed her, no hope.

* * *

_"Seventy seven, seventy eight, seventy nine... yup... there are seventy nine ceiling tiles in this room"_

Lieutenant Andrew Mann had just gotten done counting the ceiling tiles in his room for the third time, coming to the conclusion that there were definitely Seventy nine ceiling tiles in his quarters. After the disaster on Mantura, he was re-assigned to a prison on Earth known as the Devil's eye. Because of his actions, they decided that he wasn't guilty of treason, however, Mr. Agro had re-assigned him to the most boring station that anybody on the Ares blades could think of. He wasn't part of the guard force, he was a representative of the Ares blades, which basically meant that all he had to do all day was sit around and practice the art of twiddling his thumbs.

For some people, this would be the greatest assignment ever, but for Andy, this was hell. He needed to be doing something productive, he absolutely hated not having anything to do. Andy thought about why he was assigned to this, of all the people in the Ares blades who would love to be here, and he eventually got motive down to three conclusions.

Conclusion one: Mr. Agro hated him, even though Andy did nothing to him, Mr. Agro just hated Andy enough to put him through this. Conclusion two: Mr. Agro realized that his best friend had been accused of treason and was likely dead, and decided that Andy needed this opportunity to rest and reflect on what had happened, a sort of peace from action to recuperate. Conclusion three: Andy was receiving some bad press because of what happened on Mantura, and Mr. Agro stationed him at Devil's eye to keep him out of the spotlight for a little while.

Andy decided that conclusion three made the most sense. After all, he was with Julian, and did nothing to stop him from trying to escape. He couldn't blame Julian though, if Andy were in that situation, he would have done the exact same thing. Thinking about what happened always made Andy's heart rip inside out, this may be because it only happened a day ago, but Andy got the sense that he would be haunted about that scene for a long time to come. Julian's last words constantly played through Andy's mind, reminding him that he was alone in his goal now.  
_"How am I supposed to fulfill our oath without you? We've always done everything together Julian... And we were supposed to keep the oath... together..."_

Andy shut his eyes as his mind drifted away, back to the day where he and Julian made the oath that changed their lives.

_It was quiet that night, Andy had shut his eyes and was listening to the soft song of the crickets as they chirped through the night. Hearing the crunch of footsteps behind him, he turned to see the noble's kid coming over to see him again. He came around the lowborn parts often, but none of the other kids ever came near him. Andy never understood why that was though, Julian was nice. As Julian got close, Andy turned around with a smile.  
"Good evening Julie, glad you could come out."_

_Julian's eyes flared a little, but he spoke in a quiet voice, not wanting anybody to overhear their conversation.  
"Stop calling me that!"  
"But you're Julie, Julie, what else can I call you?"_

_Julian crossed his arms and pouted a little, but sat down next to Andy regardless.  
"So what are you doing out here?"  
"I was just thinking..."  
"About what?"_

_Andy turned to look Julian in the eye.  
"What makes you and me different? Why are you treated better then me?"_

_Julian looked up and away, thinking for a moment before responding.  
"I... don't really know, we're the same age... same height... But they say that I'm better... Because of my dad"  
"Because of your dad? That's stupid, that's no reason for you to be better then me."  
"Yeah..."_

As the years went by, Julian and Andy learned more about the politics concerning the lowborn and the Nobility. Both of them agreed that it was the most utterly foolish concept that could possibly be imagined, and the only reason that it was in place was because those with money wanted power. And once they got power, they wanted more of it, it was an endless cycle of greed and lust for power and authority that eventually led to the decay of the Earth territory. Eventually, Julian and Andy made a promise, an oath that they would enter the ETGF, they would gain power and respect, then they would begin to repair the system from within. Both of them kept true to their oaths, becoming talented and respected pilots within the ETGF, but with the way things were now, there was no way Julian would be able to assist Andy, there was no way he could keep his part of the oath.

Andy never felt so alone in his entire life, one of his only true friends was likely dead right now, and he was stuck on a boring station with a group of complete strangers that wouldn't even glance in his direction. He was so wrapped up in his mind, that when his computer made a binging sound, it was almost a relief that he had something he could focus his attention on. Going over to the computer, he noticed that he had received a message from Mr. Agro.

_"I've received word that Legacy's chosen has been taken to Devil's eye, after the request clears, I want you to escort her to Ares blades headquarters."_

Andy rested his head on his hands, he groaned as his eyes fell shut once more.  
"Conclusion four: He wanted me to play chauffeur for an Arteron super-weapon all along..."

* * *

Lilly looked up from her monitor and glanced over at Terra, giving her a serious glance  
"Ms. Terra, we've slipped through the patrol, we should be in visual range of Earth within four hours."

Terra sighed in relief, the Starflare had just spent the last three hours on standby, dodging ETGF patrols and scooting closer to Earth. It had been a very painful grind, as a precaution Terra had placed every pilot on the ship on standby status, she had also ordered the three Gundam pilots to wait in their cockpits. If anything happened, they would be the first out the gates and into battle.  
"Thank goodness. Lift standby status, but still keep your eyes peeled for any ETGF ships. Getting careless this deep in Earth forces territory would be nothing short of suicidal."  
"Understood, Ma-am"

Terra stood up from her chair, continuing to speak on her way out the door.  
"And tell the key pilots to meet me in the briefing room"

Terra stepped out of the bridge and started making her way to the briefing room. On her way there she saw several crew members relaxing and exchanging lighthearted conversation. She was relieved to see that the crew was trying to ease itself up before diving straight into the nose of the enemy. By the time she made it to the briefing room, the others had already arrived. Eric had even gone ahead with his briefing ritual without her around to see it. With his feet propped up against the table, he looked over at his sister.  
"Alright Terra, what's the plan?"

Terra smiled a bit, at least he was taking this seriously enough that he didn't open with some kind of smart remark that de-railed the meeting. Hearing him ask about the plan put Terra in a bit of a good mood.  
"We're going to launch a multi-platformed assault on this island."

Captain Kamaru leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table while he looked at the screen. A few seconds later, Terra pulled up a strategic grid of Devil's eye. She had assembled the grid based off the information that Julian provided her with that concerned the prison, the rest was simply guess work. Kamaru looked between her and the screen, speaking after a few seconds.  
"Multi-platformed?"

Terra looked at the group, pointing to several different parts of the screen while she spoke.  
"We're going to divide the assault group into three distinct teams. For simplicity's sake, we're going to call them teams A, B, and C. Team A will consist of Reaver and Valiant. Team B will consist of Sentinel and the infiltration team, and Team C will be the Nomura force, led by Captain Kamaru"

Jillian spoke quickly, raising her eyebrow at the sound of the teams.  
"Wait, Julian and I are going to be alone for this one?"

Terra looked at her, her eyes remaining cool and her response sounded as though she expected Jillian to say something.  
"Yes, two Gundams is more then enough to handle team A's mission"

Eric was the one that got the briefing back on track, with his feet still blocking his face, he spoke to Terra in a calm voice.  
"Did you say that I was leading an Infiltration team?"

* * *

Several hours later, Eric had his answer. The Starflare had descended down to Earth and dropped off the Sentinel Gundam and two submarine transports right into the middle of the ocean, they didn't get closer to Devil's eye to ensure that they weren't seen. Once underwater, Eric began escorting the submarines in the direction that Terra had uploaded into his navigator, which would eventually lead them to Devil's eye. Looking around the depths of the ocean, he couldn't help but enjoy the quietness of the ocean.  
"Gotta say, I'm surprised that Sentinel is doing this well under water... They must have planned for this sorta thing when they made the Gundams."

Once the infiltration team was deployed, the Starflare wasted no time getting to higher ground. Although they didn't leave orbit, they hovered as close to the border as was possible for Hans to handle. Terra sat at the bridge, taking in deep breaths. It was all a matter of time until the operation kicked into high gear. All they had to do was wait until Eric sent the signal for the Starflare to attack. This would happen one of two ways, there was the more likely chance that the ETGF's underwater sensors would pick up the team. But there was also a slight possibility that they didn't plan for an underwater attack, in which case, the infiltration team would slip into the prison and give the attacking signal while they found the target.

Inside the cockpit of Valiant, Julian watched as Captain Kamaru led the Nomura squad out of the bay. They would be taking up a post a short distance away from Devil's eye, and await the opportunity to strike. Flipping over his comm so that Reaver's pilot appeared on his main camera, Julian spoke seriously.  
"We're going to be taking the brunt of the enemy's anti-air fire... You ready for this Jill?"

Jillian shut her eyes and nodded. For the first time since the two met she seemed to be focusing on the mission more then pushing the Valiant's pilot away.  
"I'll be fine."

Julian could sense her unease through her motions, as well as her unnaturally serious tone.  
"Just pretend it's me firing at you in the simulators and you'll dodge them just fine."

Jillian seemed conflicted for a moment when those words were spoken. As though she was about to say something sincere, but remembered her tough outer shell. Her conflicted look only lasted a second before her gaze hardened towards Julian.  
"Just worry about yourself!"

Before Julian could say anything else, Jillian cut the transmission.  
"that girl..."

Meanwhile, underwater, Eric was looking carefully through the scope of his rifle. He was scanning the area ahead, as one of the submarines had picked up a few ETGF signals on it's radar.  
"See anything Haro?"

The little blue robot's eyes lit up while it's ears flapped in and out of it's round body. It spoke to Eric in it's typical childish and rather endearing tone.  
"Nothing yet, nothing yet!"

Eric thought silently to himself, something about this situation didn't sit right with him. There was a possibility that the Submarine had a faulty radar, but nothing could be concrete about this mission. As the two submarines and the Gundam crept ever closer to Devil's eye, Haro suddenly started spinning in it's place and panicking.  
"They're above us, They're above us!"  
"What!?"

Trusting Haro's word, Eric spun the Sentinel to where it's back was facing downward and it's face was looking up towards the surface. Seeing two mobile suits descend toward him, Eric quickly rose his rifle and delivered a pair of clean shots through their chests. As explosions rocked the water, Eric reached for his comm, there was no doubt that these mobile suits had already radioed in to Devil's eye and alerted them.  
"Starflare, this is Sentinel. We've been found, time for you to shake the beehive"

In the bay of the Starflare, the doors opened and the lights across the entire room lit red. This was the queue for the two remaining Gundams to begin their part of the assault. Julian made his way to the edge of the platform and slowly sent his Gundam lightly out of the doors, beginning a free fall towards Devil's eye. Knowing that Reaver was shortly behind him, he pulled out the Valiant rifle and began taking aim at the Island. As soon as the Anti-air turrets came into view, he would begin a barrage on them to lighten the fall.  
"Sentinel's sniper rifle would have been better suited for this... But I'll do what I can"

The barrage didn't take long to start as the two Gundams rocketed downward towards the surface of the island. Dodging with several graceful rolls, Julian estimated where he thought the barrage was coming from, then proceeded to fire several shots in that area. He had to be careful not to hit the prison, as a collapse would kill Legacy's chosen as well as the other prisoners. Remembering Terra's words at the end of the briefing, Julian had to be extra careful not to deal any damage to the prison.  
_"Several of Arteron's top minds and best pilots are being held at Devil's eye, rescuing them is a secondary goal that we will carry out if it's reasonably practical. However, Legacy's chosen remains your top priority"_

Julian saw a few small explosions come from the island as he got close, and the barrage of anti-air fire slowed down a little. Apparently he had succeeded in hitting at least one of the cannons. As they got closer, several Legionnaires took to the sky to intercept them. Forced to stay on the defensive because of the Anti-air barrage, the two Gundams were only able to continue dodging the attacking mobile suits. Their task was now to wait for Captain Kamaru's men to arrive and take some of the heat away from them. Looking over to ensure that Reaver was doing okay, he saw her fire her claw lances and manage to bring down one of the attacking Legionnaires.  
"Jillian's the only girl I know who can still attack when being so defensive."

He didn't mean anything bad by it. He was often impressed by how Reaver had so many ways to attack when dodging, it was a very useful trait to have. Nonetheless, despite Reaver's efforts, only one Legionnaire had fallen and the two Gundams weren't in a position to counterattack any time soon.

Captain Kamaru was still getting used to how easy his enhanced Nomura was to pilot. He was so used to the much clunkier and defiant mobile suit, that the heavily upgraded interface was something of a shock to him. Deciding to learn by doing as he got the order to attack, he lead his Nomura squad in a full charge at the prison. Kamaru found himself actually having to hold back in order for his subordinates to keep up with him, this overhaul that his suit had been through was exactly that, and Kamaru felt extremely lucky to have such a well built machine under his command.

As the island came into view, several of the Legionnaires broke away from attacking the two Gundams in order to fend off the newly arrived Nomura group. Acting quickly, Captain Kamaru rocketed forward with the enhanced thrusters and drew a beam sword. With a lighting quick strike he pierced a Legionnaire through it's chest and backed away. With this new mobile suit, everything moved easier, quicker, stronger. Kamaru realized exactly what his men had given him when they signed the paper that Eric put in front of them, and he was eternally grateful for the gift. Leading the Nomura squad with newfound power and resolve, Captain Kamaru began putting pressure on the Legionnaires as they focused their attention on the aerial battle.

Thanks to the distraction caused by the assault in the sky, Sentinel and the two submarines were able to make it up to the island with little to no difficulty. Sentinel continued his guard duty as the men in the submarines took to the ground and made their way towards the prison. The Arteron Soldiers lined up against the wall and attached some explosives. they didn't waste a single second as they set it off quickly and rushed in, Eric smirked as he watched this.  
"Starflare, this is Sentinel. The infiltration team as entered the eye. I'm gonna do something about those Anti-air cannons."

Terra's voice sounded oddly panicked, considering how well the operation was going.  
"Make it quick! We're detecting swarms of ETGF troops closing in on Devil's eye"

Eric grimaced as he took aim at the remaining Anti-air cannons and easily disposed of them with clean shots.  
"Of course they're coming after us, they must have expected us to attack here. If I brought something as important as Legacy's chosen here, I'd do the same"  
"... I know"

* * *

Cecilia was knocked out of her depression when several explosions started to ring out around her. Looking around her cell in panic, she began to realize that Arteron was staging a rescue.  
"Am I really that important?"

Going up to the bars of her cell, Cecilia looked down the hallway just in time to see several ETGF soldiers rush past her with rifles in hand.  
"They're inside the prison!?"  
"Yeah"

Cecilia couldn't help but feel hope return to her heart. Over the last few days she got the feeling that she was slowly but surly dieing inside. As though the Devil's eye was withering her heart from the inside out. The sounds of the blasts and tremors coming from the outside served to give her hope again. It caused her to completely forget about all the dreadful things that she had been thinking about over the last few days. After a few minutes of sitting and waiting, she started to yell.  
"HEY! I'm over here! Over here!!!"

Cecilia continued to yell for another couple of minutes, however, she fell silent when she heard a firefight suddenly ring out around the corner. Shutting her mouth, Cecilia pressed herself against the wall that would protect her from any stray bullets and waited. Sounds of gunfire rang out for what seemed like a lifetime to the adrenaline filled girl, but eventually it all died down. Praying that it was Arteron men that managed to win, she kept to her cell and continued to wait.

Her prayers were answered, as three men in familiar looking black armor came up to her cell and blasted it open. One of them spoke into a radio communicator while the other two went over and gently helped Cecilia to her feet.  
"Starflare, this team I-2, we've located Legacy's chosen and we're on our way to evac right now."

* * *

The moment that Devil's eye got alerted about underwater activity from Arteron, Andy was moving towards his Ares. However, by the time he entered the bay, he had received a personal order from Mr. Agro.  
"Standby in Ares and wait for orders!? Come on! Let me out there you bastard!"

Andy yelled in frustration at the text based command, but he obeyed it as he sat in the cockpit of his Ares and waited eagerly for his chance to fight against Arteron again. Tremors started to shake the whole prison, and it was clear to everybody that Arteron had begun their assault. But still no command came from Mr. Agro. Andy waited, each second seeming longer then the last with the growing sounds of battle outside. Grinding his teeth and twiddling his thumbs, he stared at his Ares' orders panel for something_, anything_, to come through the other side. Eventually, he got his wish as a message from Mr. Agro came through the line.  
"Fight with the main forces, DO NOT let Legacy's chosen get into Arteron's hand AT ANY COST"

Andy grinned in delight, powering on his Ares and entering the airborne battlefield.  
"Alright, I've got to redeem myself here. For both my sake, and Julian's"

As he took to the sky, he saw absolute chaos captivating the skies. Mobile suits were everywhere, and shots from energy rifles seemed to litter the sky. Analyzing the situation as he closed in on the battlefield, he could see two of the Hyper-advanced mobile suits stuck in the fray. One of them was the one that he and Julian battled the other day, and the second was one that Andy hadn't seen in the past. Considering the data provided, this had to be the one that appeared just in time to save the Starflare during the Mantura battle.  
"I'm taking at least one of those Hyper-advanced suits down!"

He charged towards the orange and red one, since he knew more about the way that one fought. However, he was cut off when an unusually fast Nomura got in his path, swinging it's beam sword at the Ares. Andy responded by pulling out his own beam sword and attacking the Nomura. However, this one was able to match the speed of the Ares as it dodged with ease. The two suits exchanged strikes for several seconds, and Andy was forced to adapt to this incredible Nomura.  
"This thing matches the Ares blow for blow! What has Arteron's R&D been up to!?"

The Pilot of the Nomura was clearly a master of his trade, as Andy was forced to remain on the defensive for a majority of the fight. Every time the Nomura struck, it did with purpose and precision. Andy was mostly unable to strike back against the assault of the Nomura, and on the occasion when he did, it was met with a swift counterattack. Andy knew he was outmatched, and that it was only a matter of time before he was killed by the clearly more skilled pilot. However, Andy knew reinforcements were on the way, and as long as he was keeping the superior model Nomura at bay, he was happy. Every second that this Nomura wasted fighting him was a second more that he wasn't overwhelming the Legionnaires just a few feet over.  
"that's right... focus on me, buddy"

* * *

Eric continued to lay down suppressing fire from the ground for a little longer, however, he was forced to take his attention off the aerial battle when a few Legionnaires had landed nearby to eliminate the source of the fire. Eric retreated to higher ground and laid out his automatic turrets. Acting quickly, he took aim with his rifle.  
"Aim to kill, Haro"

The turrets suddenly let out an incredible amount of suppressing fire. The Legionnaires pulled back as a response and took cover behind some nearby rubble. Eric groaned in annoyance of the Legionnaire's persistence, he wouldn't be able to overpower the sky as long as these two were down on the ground trying to destroy him.  
"This battle's taking too long, ETGF reinforcements will be here any second."

In the cockpit of the Reaver, Jillian was being overwhelmed by Legionnaires, ever since Eric's fire stopped, they had started to swarm the much smaller attacking Arteron force. She had started attacking more dangerously, taking more chances if it meant that more Legionnaires would be destroyed. While the significantly inferior mobile suits were falling left and right, Reaver was sustaining steady amounts of damage in the process, as random beam sword slashes or rifle shots would hit her frame. Eventually, Reaver had taken so much damage that Jillian was no longer able to ensure her own safety while piloting it. Using her better judgment, she pulled out of the battle and took a distant position where she fired with Reaver's few ranged weapons.

Three Legionnaires realized this was a moment of weakness for Reaver, and they pressed the assault. Two of them flanked around to her sides and rushed in. They' were both stopped quickly by the Reaver's claw lances, however, the third one had chosen to rush in a forward attack. Jillian's eyes widened in dismay as the Legionnaire closed in on her, realizing her mistake. She shut her eyes and shouted, as it was too late for her to try to dodge by the time she realized what was happening, oddly though, the attack never came. Jillian opened her eyes a few seconds later to see that Valiant had placed it's own body in the path of the Legionnaire, taking damage to it's left side, but protecting Reaver.

At point blank range, the last legionnaire to attack Reaver fell within seconds to the Valiant. Julian's voice rang through Reaver's cockpit as soon as the immediate danger passed.  
"You okay?"

Jillians' eyes widened in shock. The pilot of Valiant had just taken a stab wound for her, and he was more concerned about her well being then his own suit's damage.  
"You... you saved me."  
"Of course I did, we're allies"

Valiant slowly went back towards the battle, which was starting to die down in Arteron's favor, as Eric's suppressing fire had returned.  
"Stay back, your Gundam's too badly damaged to be of much use."

Julian's words weren't meant to be harmful, but they stung in a place Jillian didn't know she had.  
"I'm... sorry..."

Their communication was cut, and Jillian's words didn't leave her cockpit, but she still felt obligated to say them.

Inside the bridge of the Starflare, Terra's mind was scrambling. ETGF reinforcements were minutes away, and Legacy's chosen was waiting for pickup just outside the prison. They were so close to completing their objective, _so close_, yet so far away it seemed. Biting her lip, Terra eventually concluded to take a more Jillian-esque approach to the battle.  
"Take the Starflare down, we're joining the battle head on!"

Hans and Tamaki were both waiting for that order, as the second she gave the attacking order, the Starflare did a nose dive down towards the battle, and it's cannons started firing into the fray of oncoming Legionnaire reinforcements. The sheer moral boost of watching the Starflare charge into battle may have been enough to encourage the pilots to continue battling, but it didn't take long for the Starflare to become the target of several long ranged cannon shots. Hans piloted the Starflare with expert skill, but they still took several hits from the initial barrage. In the middle of the battle, Lilly turned to Terra.  
"Ms. Terra! We can't hold out much longer! and there's no way to get a transport shuttle down to pick up Legacy's chosen."

Terra's heart skipped a beat when she thought about the notion that there was no way out of this situation, that they were going to fail. However, a simple solution quickly came to mind, one that would kill two birds with one stone.  
"Lilly... Locate Legacy's chosen and register the coordinates with the computer."  
"Ma-am?"

Terra couldn't help but smirk a little at the thought of what was about to happen.  
"We're... about to make a little drop"

* * *

Cecilia was watching the battle in the sky, awestruck. So much fighting was taking place, all because of one previously average girl. For a few seconds, she started to get scared, what if she wasn't the one they were looking for? What if this had all been a mistake? That thought started to haunt her mind until she had gotten it into her head that she was most likely not the one they wanted. She shook her head in panic, but the three Arteron soldiers by her side didn't seem to notice.

Cecilia looked up towards the ship in the center of the battle, deciding that was the Starflare she overheard everybody talking about. When she squinted her eyes, she saw a gleam of light come from it's lower portion, and this gleam started to come towards Cecilia and the soldiers at speeds that would crush the body of any human. Cecilia overheard the soldiers talking among themselves as it closed in on them.  
"Is that a transport shuttle?"  
"No... Better."  
"... Legacy"

* * *

Andy was still engaged in battle against the new model Nomura, it was by far the longest struggle of his life. It was cut off early, however, when new orders came from Mr. Agro.  
"Retreat and return to Ares blades headquarters? ABORT ALL COMBAT!? You can't be serious Mr. Agro! You want me to run away!"

Andy sighed in dismay, deciding to obey orders and pull out of the battle. If Mr. Agro wanted him out of there, he likely had a damn good reason why, or at least, Andy hoped that he did. Andy thanked his luck that the upgraded Nomura didn't try to pursue the fleeing Ares as he abandoned Devil's eye and crossed the ocean, heading back to Ares blades headquarters. He would ensure that he got an explanation from Mr. Agro about why he had to abort mid-battle.

* * *

The final Gundam slammed into the island smoothly, it's cockpit opened as soon as it touched down. Cecilia looked in awe at this mobile suit. It's paint job was a mixture of white, blue, and black. It had two sleek and imposing cannon barrels were attached to the upper wrists of both hands, and on it's back were a pair of massive blue wings. Cecilia stepped up to it, placing a hand on it's leg.  
"This is... the Legacy Gundam?"

The soldiers all nodded to her, causing Cecilia to shiver a little in anticipation. She climbed closer to the cockpit of this wondrous mobile suit, wondering if she truly was the one destined to pilot it. Something about this suit just seemed so overpowering to Cecilia, she got an odd sense that she wasn't worthy to be the pilot of such a fantastic machine. Ignoring this dangerous sensation, Cecilia climbed into the cockpit and sat down in the seat. The mobile suit's inside was like a foreign language to her, and she had to take a few deep breaths in and out to put her mind at ease before she did anything else.

After a couple seconds of looking, she was able to locate the power switch. Upon flipping it, the entire inside of Legacy seemed to spark to life. Seatbelts suddenly sprang from behind the chair and snugged around Cecilia's body, and the screen in front of her lit up with a blue light. On it, written in large white letters, was the word "Legacy".

A red light filled the cockpit, and it felt as though it were penetrating Cecilia's skin and was looking at the inside of her body. The sensation was extremely uncomfortable, as it felt like something was crawling underneath her skin. She squirmed in discomfort as the Gundam searched her body for proof that she was the one destined to pilot it. And after a few seconds, it came to it's conclusion. The red light faded away, and the control panel lit up, revealing a dangerously simple layout of two grips that were near her chair.  
"I am... the pilot of the Legacy Gundam..."

She looked around, the lack of a control panel intimidating her a bit  
"... What now?"

Cecilia rested her hands on the levers by her arm rests. While gripping the levers, something unusual started to happen. She felt the cockpit quake as the Legacy stood up on it's own.  
"Is the Legacy- piloting itself!?"

Cecilia shut her eyes, letting the Gundam take over, until she realized that nothing was happening.  
"Come on, Legacy! Get up there and fight!"

The Legacy suddenly took off into the air, spreading it's wings as it entered the airborne battle.  
_"There's no way... It's responding to my thoughts!? Legacy, fire at the oncoming ships!"_

The Legacy complied, raising both of it's arms and unleashing a pair of brilliant green beams from the barrels on it's wrists. The combined force of the two beams ripped right though one of the approaching ETGF frigates, causing it to self-destruct instantly. Several Legionnaires saw the Legacy as the biggest threat on the battle field, and so they charged at it with beam swords at the ready. Panicked, Cecilia thought out a command for the Legacy to defend itself. The Legacy complied to her wish by breaking apart it's wings to reveal independent fingers, with a barrel at the tip of each finger. These new weapons fired several green bursts of energy into the oncoming Legionnaires, destroying anything that got close.

Jillian watched in awe  
"That's the Legacy?!"

Julian's jaw fell open  
"That's amazing!"

Eric's eye lit up a little.  
"That's something else... no question"

Terra watched the wreckage from the Valiant's camera, stunned.  
"That's the power of the Legacy Gundam... I never knew we had such a weapon under our control"

The ETGF forces began a full retreat, clearly not prepared to deal with something as powerful as the Legacy. In the middle of the devastation, Cecilia was trying to catch her breath, she was awestruck by what she had done.  
"Now I understand, why I'm so important. This Legacy Gundam... it's..."

She was at an utter loss for words.

* * *

Because of the momentary calm, the assault on Devil's eye was a complete success. Not only did the Starflare complete it's primary mission of rescuing Legacy's chosen, Cecilia, but they had also freed several of Arteron's top aces and master strategists. They also had a more symbolic victory, as they proved that a full on battle against the ETGF was possible to win, on Earth of all places. Back in orbit and retreating swiftly from Earth Forces territory, the Starflare crew celebrated this victory while Terra and the Key pilots welcomed Cecilia as one of their own in the briefing room.

Terra looked at the young girl with a smile, she finally had a complete set of horseman. Cecilia fit well with Death, considering what she had just done in the recent battle, but Julian and Famine didn't make a very good mix. Content that three out of four matched up decently with their respective horseman of the apocalypse, Terra took a load off her mind and sat down, finally getting to know the two newer Gundam pilots a bit better.

After a rather pleasant chat, Terra stood up with Cecilia  
"I'll show you to your room, everybody else... You're free! Have fun!"

Morale was extremely high in the ship, and Terra wasn't about to ruin it, not just yet anyway.

* * *

Julian sat down in the Starflare's cafeteria a few hours after things settled down. Despite the fact that he had fought along side the Nomura pilots in the recent battle, he was still shunned and treated as unwelcome aboard the Starflare. He stared at his foot and spun his fork on the table, feeling a bit down because of his outcast status. As he did this, the voice of a certain irritable female spoke down to him, but this time, her voice had an odd softness to it.  
"This seat taken?"

Julian looked up to see her, but Jillian didn't even wait for a response before she sat down on the opposite side of the table from him. She interlocked her fingers together and rested them down on the table while she looked at him.  
"Listen, Julian... Thanks for saving my life out there today"

He smiled at her, finally in the mood to eat as he took a bite of his meal.  
"Don't mention it, like I said, we're allies right?"

She nodded, deciding not to reply and simply eat in silence. Halfway through the meal was the next time that she spoke.  
"So... about your offer in the simulator? To get practice... Get better... I think I'll take it"

Julian's eyes widened for a moment, he honestly thought he was either dreaming or hearing things.  
"Really!? What sparked the change of heart?"

The girl looked away, a bit ashamed.  
"I lost my head out there... both the chief engineer and Terra chewed me out for the damage that Reaver took..."

She shut her eyes and looked down, almost a completely different girl from her usual, more aggressive, self.  
"I never want that to happen again, so Julian... will you help me?"

Julian smiled at her, extending his hand across the table. He gently laid it down over hers and hoped that she would look up into his eyes, to see how he was responding to the way she was swallowing her pride.  
"Of course I will."

The moment wasn't going to last long, and he was sure that all it would take was a good night's sleep before Jillian was back to normal. But he was grateful for this chance to see a different side of her, it cemented in his mind that there actually was a girl beneath all that rough attitude that she usually had.

* * *

Cecilia rested in her bed, reflecting on everything that had taken place today. Being in the Legacy was the first time in her entire life that Cecilia felt whole, as though she had spent her entire life living a dream, and she woke up for the first time when she was in the Legacy. It was a sensational rush, and she came to the conclusion that it was her destiny to fight with that mobile suit. It was her destiny to destroy the broken government of the Earth forces. It was her fate to leave a legacy in her wake.  
"Legacy..."

**End of movement 3**

**

* * *

**

Well, this concludes my most recent Gundam chapter update, all four of the Gundams have been introduced, and now the real action can begin.

Next time- Movement 4: Love and war

Review please, your feedback is very welcome and appreciated.


	4. Mvt 4: Infinity's rage

Isn't it great how a single positive review can renew my faith in a story's potential? Just when I was about to phone it in for Legacy Gundam, I was motivated once again to keep on going. However, the chapter title isn't the same as I thought it would be, so "Love and War" became "Infinity's rage". Other then that, there's not a whole lot to say.

without further delay, here's the fourth chapter of Legacy Gundam.

* * *

**Mobile suit: Legacy Gundam**

**movement 4- Infinity's rage  
**

The Reaver Gundam battled desperately as it fires several rounds from it's rifle at the oncoming waves of opposing mobile suits. It seemed as though no matter how many Jillian shot down, they kept coming back. Again and again the relentless mobile suits charged at the Gundam. It grew more and more clear to Jillian that she was getting no refuge from the swarms of mobile suits. Growing frustrated and desperate in the cockpit, Jillian growled under her breath.  
"To hell with this program! The battle never ends!"

Julian sat in the same cockpit, looking directly over Jillian's shoulder into the battlefield. After the events at Devil's eye, Julian had become something of a mentor towards the girl who happened to have a very similar sounding name. While he was only a year older than her at the oldest, when it came to experience in a mobile suit, Julian was old enough to be her father. However, assuming that mobile suit experience was what caused one to age, Jillian was growing up extremely fast, it seemed as though all the girl really needed was somebody to help her hone her skills, and tell her directly what her strengths and weaknesses were. Julian reflected on her swift growth, realizing that the only reason that he himself was so talented was because he had Andy to compete against ever since he was a child.

Julian smirked a little at Jillian's statement of the obvious.  
"Uh... that's sort of the point Jill"

Jillian paused for a moment, her frustration become ever more clear by her face and the tone of her voice.  
"I know that! It's just... so frustrating! I mean, why waste my time fighting a battle that's impossible for me to win!"

Julian sighed, scratching the back of his head.  
"It shows how much you've grown, how long you last and how many mobile suits you've shot down is saved and recorded in the system. It's pretty useful for seeing how much better you've gotten"

Julian had in front of him a piece of paper that had Jillian's high score before he began mentoring her, and she was well on her way to tripling her previous high, Jillian was becoming a better pilot at a stunning rate. At the pace she was growing, she'd be equals with him and Eric in only a few more days, if that. This was, of course, something that he wasn't going to share with her until she was done with her current battle. An ego boost at a time like this would cripple Jillian's ability to fight, and scar her score when she finished.

The Reaver Gundam had several more mid-range weapons at it's disposal then Jillian had initially thought, many of which were very unique and were designed to force the opponents into close range combat, where the Reaver shined. For instance, if she combined the Reaver's rifle attack with her claw lances, as she was doing often these days, she had a brutal combination that hit the enemy from two sides, as the claw lances wrapped around behind the mobile suit and stabbed forward at it's back. Those without good reflexes would be caught by the lances and pulled swiftly into the Reaver's point-blank domain.

The Reaver was a much more impressive mobile suit than Julian first thought, and both it and it's pilot had grown much since Julian first battled it on Mantura's surface. Julian couldn't help but admire Jillian all the more for it, he began to see her as more than just a pretty face, she had a very special kind of drive to her, something that Julian hadn't seen in a woman for years. Most of the ladies that Julian grew up with were sheltered, spoiled, none of them believed that they had to work for anything that they got, they took their entire lives for granted. Not Jillian though, she was really something special.

His newfound admiration for Jillian, however, had to be put on hold for the moment, as the Starflare was still deep in ETGF territory. Trying to make an advance on her right now would only be a distraction for both pilots. Once they were able to rest at some point, however, maybe he'd have the chance he was looking for. Until then, he was content with these lessons, using them as a chance to spend time with Jillian. At the moment, Jillian was still doing incredibly well, although the oncoming mobile suits were dealing pretty consistent damage to the Reaver. As a particularly nasty plasma shot rang against Reaver's shoulder, Jillian shouted in frustration.  
"My right arm is down! This is getting ridiculous!"

Julian couldn't stop himself from leaning forward and gently laying a hand on her shoulder. He spoke in a soothing voice to try and settle her down. When Jillian got angry, her abilities always dropped dramatically, this was one of the first things that Julian pointed out to her about her piloting, and one of the most difficult hurdles that she'd have to overcome.  
"Take it easy... Just relax and try to focus on the task at hand."

On the outside of the Reaver's cockpit, the Gundam laid down a barrage of fire with the rifle in it's left hand. Jillian was well aware that her time was up, the loss of her right arm sealed that, now her goal was to take down as many opponents as she could with what she had left. Flying backwards, the Reaver used it's rifle to immobilize attacking mobile suits before rushing in and using her beam sword to finish the job. Switching between the two weapons often was a difficult task, so Jillian often had to focus around dodging enemy fire and attacking only when she had an opening. Despite an amazing performance from Jillian, it was only a matter of time before the Reaver was overwhelmed and destroyed.

When Jillian stepped out of the simulator, Julian was far from surprised when she leaned against the wall and started to breathe heavily. She had spent a lot of energy in that fight, during the battle she was fine, she had forced herself to continue fighting despite how tired she was. However, once the battle was over, all of that forced energy drained from her body. From the way she sounded, she wasn't overly optimistic concerning how well she performed in the simulation.  
"Damn, that was pathetic..."

Julian couldn't stop himself from smiling, perhaps her ability to pilot Reaver wasn't the only part of her that was developing. Stepping around to face her, Julian looked at her with a reassuring gaze.  
"Jillian, you're incredible. You just tripled your previous best score at that simulation"

Jillian was clearly shocked by this news, her eyes lit up a little.  
"I... did what?"

Julian laughed a little, he was in good spirits at the moment.  
"You heard me... come on, let's go get some lunch"

Realizing exactly how hungry she was, Jillian nodded and followed Julian out of the simulator room.

* * *

Cecilia was getting somewhat used to life aboard the Starflare, the other people aboard the ship were treating her rather well. Though that was only natural, as she was the pilot of the Legacy, and was one of their saving graces on the battlefield. Reflecting on what had taken place back at devil's eye, Cecilia had found it rather easy to fight against the ETGF. Why it would be so easy for her to kill people when she had never so much as pointed a knife at anybody in the past was a mystery to her, after thinking on the subject for a painstakingly long time, she decided to herself that it was only easy because she saw her opponents as mobile suits, not humans. The girl shut her eyes and tried to get a bit of rest, which was a task that had gotten quite a bit easier now that she was on the Starflare. Aboard this ship, she found that she hadn't felt so safe since she was forced to leave her home behind. And knowing that they were leaving ETGF space, that they'd be behind their own borders in a number of days, Cecilia got her hopes up that she'd get to feel what it was like to be truly safe. To sleep at night without worry of being attacked, or raided by a mob of officers, or anything of the sort. The thought was appealing, to say the very least about it.

Cecilia fell into a deep sleep for the first time in years, believing that she was safe aboard the Starflare, despite the fact that the ship had a massive target on it's hull, and was neck deep in ETGF territory.

* * *

"You really mean to say that this ship, the Starflare, was able to launch an attack on our home, mother earth, secure a top priority objective, and then escape the combat zone all without a hitch? Might I ask, what in the world were our forces on Devil's eye doing?"

The man in the mask read the report in silence, speaking aloud to the low ranking officer that had brought it to him. The young lieutenant seemed to shake in his boots, as though the man in the mask would demote him on the spot for being a part of such a botched operation.  
"C-captain Talon, Sir! It was all because of those hyper advanced mobile suits, if it weren't for them, our forces would have routed Arteron."

Captain Talon sighed, waving the report in front of him and speaking to the Lieutenant with a curious voice.  
"So then tell me, how did you end up surviving that mess?"  
"M- My superior gave me orders to retreat just before the fourth machine made it's appearance"

Captain Talon rested his head on his hand, the metal mask that covered the top part of his head making a tiny clang as it collided with his knuckles. He was the only officer in the ETGF that was given permission to wear such a thing, and it certainly gave him a distinctive air from his fellow officers. Captain Talon had a brutal reputation in the ETGF, he had won battles in the past that many considered to be lost causes, he could turn a fight on it's head merely by appearing on the battlefield in his mobile suit, he was a man of incredible logic and skills, truly one of the top leaders in the ETGF. While he listened to the lieutenant's tale of the hyper advanced mobile suits, Talon simply shrugged and turned his attention to the report presented to him.  
"Ah yes, a fourth one made it's appearance at that battle, didn't it? It makes you wonder just how many of those mobile suits Arteron really has."

The Lieutenant nodded, his face still slightly red, and he still shook lightly before the legendary captain.  
"Those above us believe that we haven't seen all of them yet, they suspect around five or six of the hyper advanced suits at this time."

Captain Talon simply smirked, setting down the report and looking up at the lieutenant, though it was impossible to tell what exactly he was looking at because the mask he wore covered his eyes. Many wondered how it was that he could see through it, his vision was a bit of a mystery among the lower ranking pilots in his group.  
"I believe that those above us are wrong... Arteron only has four of those machines."  
"S-sir? What makes you think that?"

Captain Talon smirked a bit wider, as though predicting that the lieutenant would question his statement.  
"Arteron made a desperate move by invading Devil's eye, just to find the pilot for one of these mobile suits. If they had any more, that were still void of pilots, why would they go to such lengths to find that one girl? Logic dictates that they only have four mobile suits, and we've seen all of them."

The Lieutenant paused, thinking on his words for a few moments before replying.  
"I never thought about it like that, Sir."

Captain Talon rose from his chair, looking down at the Lieutenant.  
"What was your name again, Lieutenant?"

The Lieutenant stood stiff, his shaking vanishing and his face clearing as he spoke, as he figured that the worst was behind him.  
"L-Lieutenant Andrew Mann, sir."

Captain Talon stepped down from his command chair, heading for the door that would take him out of the bridge.  
"Walk with me, Lieutenant Mann."  
"Sir!"

Captain Talon walked down the hallways, with Lieutenant Mann trailing a short distance behind him. Talon didn't look back as he spoke, he kept his head forwards and his eyes locked on his next target, even while he was speaking.  
"Lieutenant, you've already massed a bit of a track record of fighting those mobile suits, haven't you?"  
"That's correct, I've been involved in two battles where they've appeared so far, sir."  
"Yes, I read the reports. Your first time was at the Mantura colony, and then again at Devil's eye. Tell me, Lieutenant, what did you think of them?"

Andy lowered his gaze, thinking for several moments before speaking.  
"Well, they're certainly impressive, considering that three of them fought back an entire attack wave, and four of them beat us at Devil's eye. They're like nothing else in the sky, not even my Ares comes close to matching them."

Captain Talon brought his hand up to his chin, his long blonde hair trailing behind him while he thought aloud.  
"According to the gathered intelligence, the enemy calls those machines "Gundams". They're supposedly generations ahead of their time, which makes them quite the formidable enemy."

Andy nodded, looking back up towards the back of Captain Talon's head.  
"According to my supervisor, I'm supposed to join this ship's crew and assist in your mission... So, what exactly is your mission?"

Captain Talon looked back towards Andy at long last, a confident smile on his face while he spoke with a completely level tone.  
"Simple, Lieutenant Mann, we're going on a Gundam hunt."

Andy's eyes widened a bit in shock, his voice fumbled a little bit as he spoke.  
"A Gundam hunt? Sir, My supervisor said that-"

Talon's gaze became a bit more serious for a moment.  
"Your supervisor? Do you happen to be talking about that scientist, Agro?"  
"That's him, Sir."  
"Forget what he says, he knows nothing about the military's operations. His job is simply to make new weapons for us to use to destroy our enemies with... not to give us warriors orders. From now on, you answer to me, Lieutenant Mann, understood?"  
"Yes sir!"

Captain Agro and Andy went along a bit longer before they turned a corner. As Andy turned the corner, he accidentally rammed into a young man around his age. The new man's black hair covered one of his eyes, and he was the only person that Andy came across in the entire ship that was wearing civilian attire. Andy wasn't one to question why, and just assumed that the young man had his reasons. Recovering from the collision, Andy stepped to the side.  
"E- Excuse me."

The other man walked past him, speaking quietly in a hostile tone.  
"Watch where you're going next time."

The rather dark man just kept on walking, leaving Andy in a bit of a bad mood.  
"Who was that guy! He could have at least said excuse me."

Captain Talon turned around to Andy, speaking in the calm tone that was almost constant for him at this point.  
"His name is Alec Stargrove, and he's going to be one of your comrades out there when we're fighting."

Andy turned to Captain Talon, stunned by those words.  
"You're telling me that guy is a mobile suit pilot?"  
"One of the best."

Andy shook his head, still a bit surprised about this development.  
"well, he could be a bit more polite in any case."

Captain Talon started moving down the hallways again, speaking loud enough so that Andy could hear him.  
"You'll get used to it... besides, the life that he's damned to live isn't one that I'd want to push onto anybody."

Talon and Andy made their way down to the engineering bay, Talon had a bit of a habit of individually checking each part of his ship before takeoff. Apparently it was to ensure that everything was perfectly in order, to make sure that no complications would arise because a section didn't do their jobs properly. As the doors to the engineering bay slid open, three of the engineers turned to Talon and gave a brief salute before the captain started to look around the bay.  
"How's everything looking down here?"

The head engineer took a step forward, speaking to Talon in a brief and professional manner.  
"Everything's ready to go, Sir. Engines are operating at 99% capacity, we're as ready for launch as we're ever going to be."

Talon nodded, his cool tone somewhat contradicting the tone of the Engineer.  
"Good, because the engines are going to be under quite a bit of stress for a while... We'll be operating at maximum speed for at least 6 hours"

The Engineer started to speak up about this statement.  
"6 hours! B-but sir that's-"

Talon cut him off, his voice growing slightly more serious as he talked about the mission.  
"The Arteron ship has enough of a head start on us. We have to intercept it before it gets out of ETGF territory. And that means that we have to move as quickly as possible. Make it happen."

The head engineer sighed, saluting as Talon turned his back and started to leave the bay.  
"As you command, Sir."

Andy went along with Talon, speaking up for the first time since his encounter with Alec.  
"Sir, do you really think we can catch up with Arteron before they get to safety."

Talon turned back towards Andy, a confident smirk crept across his face.  
"Lieutenant Mann, I'm absolutely certain that we'll be engaging that ship before they slip from our grasp"

* * *

Eric was in the cockpit of the Sentinel, reading a magazine with his feet propped up against a barren and powered down control panel.  
"Standby is so boring..."

Haro bounced up and down in the bay, doing his best to lighten up the far to relaxed Eric.  
"No problem! No problem!"

Eric chuckled a little bit resting the magazine against his chest and looking at the little bouncing robotic ball.  
"Ease up Haro, you're gonna break something."

Of course, that didn't stop the little robot from bouncing inside the cockpit. Perhaps that was something that Haro did when he was bored, act in the most silly and pointless way possible. If that was the case, then Haro had to be just as bored on standby as Eric was. He was trapped in the cockpit of the Sentinel, simply waiting around just in case there was a fight. Eric perfectly understood the need to have at least one Gundam pilot on standby, but that didn't stop it from being the most dull experience in existence. Just when Eric thought that he was going to get Haro to calm down, his comm flicked on, with the veteran fighter Captain Kamaru appearing on the main screen.  
"Eric, get you feet off the Gundam's dashboard"

Eric shrugged, swinging his feet off the panel and sitting up regularly.  
"well, it's not like anything's happening around here."

Kamaru sighed, shaking his head and speaking a low tone, insinuating that he was a bit ashamed of Eric's extremely laid back attitude.  
"we're still drowning in ETGF territory, we have to be ready to fight at a single moment's notice"

Eric nodded, reaching to de-activate the comm as he spoke in his usual bored tone.  
"I got it... I got it..."

Before the communication was cut, Kamaru spoke again.  
"Hang on Eric, there's something else... Keep an eye on the Legacy during our next fight, would you? Cecilia's about as green as they come, and I'm not sure if she'll have what it takes to hold her own in a real battle, now that she's one of us."

Eric nodded, pulling his hand off the power for a moment.  
"I think I can do that for you. Don't worry, I'll keep Cecilia under my wing until she's good to go."

With those parting words, Eric cut the power and propped his feet against the control panel once more, flicking open the Magazine.  
"Standby sucks..."

* * *

Hours passed without event, Terra was a bit thrown off that they hadn't encountered any Earth forces until now, since the ETGF had forward bases that would be capable of fighting. Perhaps the Starflare had gotten lucky. They had avoided the occassional patrol, but they really hadn't seen any elevated defensive measures. Was the ETGF communication really this bad with it's space fleet? Terra found it hard to believe, things were going too well, something had to be problem was, Terra wasn't sure what it was, she really had no way of predicting what the future held. She simply had to prepare for the worst and hope that her Gundam pilots could handle the rest.

Eric came into the command bridge, finally freed from the Sentinel's cockpit as Julian and Jillian took over standby for Eric and Kamaru. Eric rested his arms against the head of Terra's chair, speaking in a relaxed tone, though it was clear that he was glad to be off standby.  
"How's it going up here, sis?"

Terra leaned back, sighing and taking her eyes off the screen.  
"Pretty well... I guess..."

Eric paused, noticing from Terra's tone that she was worried about something. Although this was nothing new for her.  
"You guess?"

Terra looked forward again, though her eyes weren't focused on the screen completely.  
"Things have been way too quiet, I honestly can't believe that the ETGF is just going to give up and let us get away quietly..."

Eric nodded, pausing as his eyes glanced over to the monitor that showed the rear of the Starflare. Something seemed a bit odd, as Eric squinted, he could see a faint glimmer. It was slowly getting larger... and larger.  
"Huh... that can't be good"

Terra looked up, noticing the same thing that Eric was looking at. She suddenly became far more serious, sitting up in her chair and speaking in a direct tone.  
"Eric, get back in your Gundam"

Eric was already heading out the door, waving Terra off as he crossed the threshold.  
"Aye, Aye."

Terra spoke to the bridge, lowering her gaze and thinking for a moment.  
"Bring the ship 180 degrees around, all hands, combat condition red!"

* * *

"Hmm... seems like we've got their attention. Everybody, get ready for combat. Slow down the ship to 45% speed and prepare for engagement. Don't forget, this is the ship that beat us at both Mantura and Devil's eye, don't underestimate it"

Andy nodded, hearing the orders as Captain Talon spoke. He activated the main drive of his Ares, preparing to make his way out into the battlefield. As he started up his activation sequence, Andy's gaze flicked over to the left as the Mobile suit that shared a cargo bay with the Ares came to life. It was all black, with shades of green tracing it's frame. The Mobile suit made Andy shiver a bit, as he realized that it was exactly like the Gundams that he had fought in the past. From the cockpit of this new mobile suit, a voice that Andy recognized spoke on an open channel. It was Alec, the guy that had rammed into Andy earlier in the day.  
"Captain, do I have permission to launch this time?"

Andy's eyes widened in surprise, hearing Talon's words as they came down.  
"Yes, Alec, you have my permission... Show them the power of the infinity"

* * *

As the two ships closed in on one another, mobile suits began pouring out of either bays. The Four Gundams took the lead from the Arteron ships, all of them making their way towards the ETGF forces. Just as they prepared to engage, the Infinity tore out of the containment bay and charged towards the Gundams, drawing an energy sword and coming dangerously close to putting a gash in the Valian't shoulder, were it not for Julian's reflexes.  
"What the heck is this thing!"

Jillian watched in shock for a moment, she sped towards the black mobile suit and attacked with her blades. The Infinity blocked swiftly, overpowering the Reaver and sending it backwards, the Infinity would have attacked Reaver, however, a few rounds from Sentinel's high caliber rifle sent it in the opposite direction. Jillian's voice came over the comm, it was clear that she was worried.  
"It's a Gundam!"

The Infinity changed it's attack pattern, charging at the Legacy. It flew in an extremely hard to predict evasive pattern, making it impossible for either Eric or Cecilia to target it properly. Jillian chased after the machine from behind while Julian flanked from the left. Eric spoke as he held his fire, if he shot at the angle he was in, he'd risk hitting Cecilia.  
"The ETGF has one too?"

The Valiant and the Reaver closed in on the infinity, attacking it from two angles. the infinity responded by drawing a massive blade of energy and spinning around, which forced both Gundams to stop their attack and retreat. However, that moment's halt was all Eric needed to get a shot lined up and fired. As the round made it's way towards the Infinity, the black Gundam evaded by continuing it's spinning motion from it's attack, dodging the round's shot cleanly. Julian was the next to speak into the group's comm, as the Valiant charged after the infinity and swung the Valian's longsword at the Infinity.  
"This thing is crazy powerful!"

The Legacy charged forward next, catching the infinity off guard as it was dodging the Valiant's sword. Cecilia drew an energy saber and struck at the Infinity's shoulder, however, the infinity was quick to counter by drawing a second lengthy saber and clashing it against the blade that the Legacy was holding. Without warning, a piercing headache rang through Cecilia's mind, she brought her hands away from the metal rods that she used to mentally control the Legacy, unable to shake the headache.  
"What... is this... this pain!"

The Infinity pulled away a little bit, it's pilot pausing in surprise as his head started to ache.  
"S-Sister? Are you here?"

His eyes locked onto the Legacy, which was the source of his headache.  
"Sister! It's you!"

The Infinity charged directly at the Legacy, it would have stabbed it's blades directly into the cockpit if the Reaver hadn't intercepted with it's own attack. The Infinity peeled away, directly into the line of fire of the Sentinel's rifle. By keeping itself moving constantly, and making it's pattern extremely unpredictable, the Infinity was able to avoid the firing and charge at the sentinel. However, the sentinel simply put it's sniper rifle off to the side and placed it's hands together in front of it. Two pieces of a cannon came together from either side of either arm. After a single second, where there were once two arms, there was now a single, massive cannon. Eric smirked a little bit.  
"Say hello to the Sentinel's ace in the hole, the peacemaker"

The Infinity's pilot wasn't an idiot, the moment he realized that he was staring down the barrels of a massive cannon, Alec called off his attack on the Sentinel, only to be greeted by a waiting pincer attack between Reaver and Valiant. They dived in from either side each slashing with a blade and each taking one of the Infinity's appendages with it. The Valiant tore off it's right arm, while the Reaver sliced away it's left leg. Julian smirked a little bit at the damaged infinity, opening a comm to Jillian.  
"Good job Jill!"  
"What can I say? I'm a natural"

the infinity was beaten, it began it's retreat swiftly after it lost an arm and a leg. Alec growled a bit in the cockpit as the infinity fled the field.  
"Next time, dear sister, next time you will die!"

Eric let out a small sigh as he retracted his cannon.  
"Aww, I went through the trouble of pulling that thing out and I didn't even get to use it?"

Jillian was already speeding towards the main battle, the Gundam's struggle against the infinity had done a good job of distracting them from the fight that was taking place between the two ships.  
"Why don't you use it on that enemy ship and save us all a headache and a half?"

Julian took off as well, chasing after the much faster Reaver.  
"Jill! Wait for the rest of us!"

Eric was about to go as well, when he turned back and realized that it had been a while since the Legacy had even budged. He flicked open a comm with the fourth Gundam, wondering what the problem was.  
"Cecilia, you alright in there?"

Cecilia had been trapped in her own mind ever since her piercing headache when she came into contact with the Infinity, she wasn't able to move, or think about anything else other then the source of her pain. It was a sensation that she hadn't felt before in her entire life. The sort of piercing agony that only came from an outside source.  
"What... was that pain? That feeling?"

She wasn't able to dwell on it for very long before Eric's voice rang through the Legacy's cockpit. Looking up towards the speakers, Cecilia snapped herself back to reality and gripped the Legacy's metal bars.  
"I'm alright, let's go."

With that, the Legacy and the Sentinel sped off to catch up with their two fellow Gundams, who were already neck deep in mobile suit combat.

* * *

Andy groaned as he blocked an overwhelming attack from an attacking machine, it was the same mobile suit that he had Julian had battled back on Mantura, the red Gundam. Andy felt almost overwhelmed, barely able to keep up with the red bullet.  
"Somebody's learned some new moves! Damn, when did you get this good?"

Andy's eyes widened in dismay as the Red Gundam suddenly appeared behind him, he thought that he was done for. However, just before the Red Gundam finished Andy, it was bombarded with fire as four other Ares models charged in.  
"Lieutenant Mann! You alright?"

Andy let out a sigh of relief, flicking on his comm and speaking in a relieved voice.  
"Well, about time you guys showed up!"

The four newly arrived Ares models beat back the Red Gundam, ensuring that Andy wasn't in harm's way for the time being.  
"We're all that's left of the Ares blades, we have to look after one another."

Andy nodded, joining in the attack.  
"I hear that!"

All five of the ares units started to assault the Red Gundam, overwhelming it with the superiority of numbers.

* * *

"Damn it all!"

Jillian was struggling against the Ares units, she could do nothing but dodge and try her best to keep distance. Even that was a failing goal, as the mobile suits flanked around her and were starting to overwhelm the Reaver. She was starting to get utterly overpowered by the Ares units, and she started to take some damage from the near constant rifle fire. Luckily for Jillian though, a pair of powerful beams blasted in between the Reaver and the Ares units. The Legacy arrived at the Reaver's side, evening the odds of the battle a little bit.  
"Are you okay, Jillian?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine... Thanks Cecilia"

Once Cecilia came to the rescue, Jillian charged towards the Ares cluster, attacking one of the units swiftly. No harm came to the Ares as it's four allies came to it's aid, but before they were able to overwhelm the Reaver for a second time, the Legacy broke up the crowd and allowed the Reaver to back away. It was a cycle that happened multiple times over the matter of about fifteen seconds before they found themselves in a stalemate. Jillian paused for a moment, trying to think of a way that they could tilt the odds in the favor of the two Gundams.  
"Well this is just dandy..."  
"What do you think we could do, Jillian?"  
"Not sure... things are sorta messy right now... What are the boys doing right now!"

Eric and Julian were forcing their way through a small clump of Legionnaires, trying to make a hole to the ETGF command ship so that Eric could blast it apart with the his peacemaker. It wasn't going as well as it could of, as the Legionnaires were doing an admirable job of holding the line against the two Gundams. Julian checked behind him to see the few remaining Nomura units defending the Starflare against the ETGF's attack wave, with Captain Kamaru leading up the defense. That meant that he and Eric would be alone, and that the four Gundams were really all that was able to attack the Earth's ship.  
"Hate to say it Eric, but this isn't really going as well as I hoped."

Eric's voice came over the comm, replying to Julian's statement as it fired a few rounds into the squad of enemies.  
"I agree, it's not like we can just pull back either, or this little group will go to attack either our fellow Gundams, or the Starflare."

Julian nodded, pulling out the Valiant sword and putting the rifle away.  
"Agreed, so then how are we going to get rid of these guys? Eric, will your cannon do the trick?"  
"I'm afraid not, it takes a good minute to recharge after I use it... And the Sentinel's performance also drops pretty badly after I pop off the peacemaker."  
"Great... it's a last resort weapon..."

The opposing squad started to advance on the two Gundams, the Valiant lifted it's longsword into a fighting position, and the Sentinel pulled up it's sniper rifle again. Eric's voice came over the comm, finishing the conversation as both Gundams plunged into battle.  
"Best not keep our company waiting."

* * *

Captain Talon paused, looking at the battle field while he sat in his command chair. It really didn't suit him well, but he had to analyze the entire battle in all of it's aspects. He needed to gather all of the information that he possibly could on the opposing ship, and the four mobile suits that it carried. The moment that the infinity retreated back to ship, Talon's priorities changed. This turned from a battle that he was trying to win, to a battle to collect combat data. And he certainly was collecting an impressive amount of information on these opposing mobile suits. He rose his hand up to his chin, wishing that he was out there himself battling against the mobile suits, instead of in this ship, stuck in the command chair where he could do nothing but watch.  
"Well, at the very least, this proves that we're able to actually put up a fight against these machines... these Gundams"

He sat there, observing the perfect stalemate for several moments before he decided that he had all the information that he needed. Looking down at his navigator, he spoke in a calm and level tone.  
"prepare the ship to back off, and order the suits to retreat..."

the navigator looked up at him in surprise at this sudden order.  
"S-sir, are you sure?"  
"We've got what we came for, and there's really no reason for us to throw away more of our soldier's lives, order the retreat, we're backing off... for now"

He nodded, inputting the commands in the panel and turning the ship around.  
"Understood, Sir. Mobile suits are returning to the Ship, and we're preparing for retreat."

* * *

"They're... retreating?"

Terra watched the battle from her command bridge, surprised that the Earth forces were retreating when the battle was still deadlocked. She lowered her gaze and started to think, her mind scrambling for a possible motive for their retreat.  
"what were they up to here?"

Lilly looked over from her command panel towards Terra.  
"Ma'am, what are your orders?"

Terra looked over, speaking quickly.  
"order our own retreat, I have a bad feeling that more ETGF are on their way here."  
"You got it Ma'am"

About a half an hour later, the regular crew was sitting around the briefing room, thinking about what had happened during the battle while the Starflare sped away from the scene where they were fighting for their lives just moments ago. Julian looked up at Terra, speaking in a serious tone.  
"The thing that worries me the most about this battle, was that we just saw an ETGF Gundam... and it took all four of us to fight it back."

Terra looked over towards Julian, replying in an equally serious tone.  
"was it really that strong?"

Julian lowered his gaze, looking at his hands, which were cupped together and resting on the table.  
"If I were fighting that thing on my own, it would have worked me over."

Eric vouched for Julian, his eyes blocked from view as his feet were resting on the table.  
"Same here, that Gundam's not one to be messed around with."

Terra sighed, crossing her arms and thinking for a moment.  
"So they got their hands on a Gundam... I'd really like to know how that happened..."

Jillian balled her fist, a bit angered that they had struggled in such a way against a single enemy. She rose from her chair and punched the table.  
"Does it even matter! It's an enemy, so we just have to fight it and destroy it! Simple as that!"

Julian shrugged, chuckling slightly at Jillian's outburst.  
"Jill, I really hope it's that simple."

Jillian turned towards him, a mixture of frustration and confusion in her voice.  
"Well, what could complicate it?"

Julian replied in a level tone, he tried to get Jillian to calm down and think about it rationally.  
"Our Gundams are supposed to be the secret weapons of Arteron, if the ETGF also has Gundams, that contradicts our only real advantage that Arteron has."

Jillian nodded, thinking silently for a moment before speaking up.  
"I get it... But even still, it's not like we're totally overpowered. I mean, we did end up winning today... right?"

Terra shut her eyes, sighing in frustration before she spoke.  
"We lost quite a few Nomuras today... if anything, I'd consider it a tie... And even then, I can't help but feel that we lost today. Something about the forces we fought today were... different. They operated far more professionally and reacted to our moves much faster then what we previously engaged... Whoever their commander was, he meant business."

The room sat in silence after that, nobody had anything else to say. After a few seconds passed, Terra addressed the room.  
"I suppose that's all for now, we'll be remaining in combat condition yellow until we get out of Earth territory, dismissed"

Everybody stood up and filed out of the room, leaving Terra alone with her thoughts as the room was left barren.  
"We sat in one place for a long time... I have no doubt in my mind that we're going to have a hard time getting out of ETGF territory..."

**End of movement 4**

**

* * *

**


	5. Mvt 5: Calm before the storm

Well, it's been a long while hasn't it? At long last, I pulled myself to the computer and wrote up another chapter of Mobile Suit: Legacy Gundam. Now I just need to update my rift story... my Zero story... Journey of a lifetime... Geez, I'm writing a lot of stories right now. Well, regardless, chapter 5 is up. And as always, I'm eager to hear what you've got to say about it. Just FYI, my work doesn't typically see a second draft, I just type my chapter up off ad-lib and put it up when it's done. If you think it's about time I start glancing over my work a second time, please say so.

In any case, that's enough of my rambling. Please enjoy the next installment of Legacy Gundam.

**Mobile Suit: Legacy Gundam**

**Movement 5: Calm before the storm  
**

Julian lowered his head deep in thought within the cockpit of the Valiant. The unit they just escaped from seemed to operate differently from the Earth forces that he worked with in the past. They were quicker, more precise, they operated more as a team then Julian was used to. As far as Julian knew, there was only one unit in the entire ETGF that operated on such a clean and efficient level. Of course, if it turned out to be the unit that Julian thought it was, it meant bad things were about to fall upon the Starflare. Commander Talon and his men were renowned throughout the entire ETGF for their combat efficiency, there wasn't a single person in their unit that wasn't an expert pilot. Then of course, Talon himself was also nobody to mess around with, he was known to be one of the most cool headed, logical leaders that the ETGF had on payroll. Of course, the Starflare had pretty good luck in the past, but that was through the efforts of the Gundams, and Captain Kamaru's leadership skills.  
"There's no question that we're going to have a hard time escaping Earth Territory now... With somebody like Commander Talon chasing after us."

Julian was snapped out of his mental reflection, though, when he heard the relaxed voice of Eric come out over the outer speakers of the Sentinel. Apparently, they just finished the field upgrades.  
"Awesome, thanks a million you guys."

The sentinel's head turned towards the Valiant, Julian couldn't help but smile at the pointless action, though it cleared up for certain who Eric was talking to. Julian couldn't help but wonder why he didn't just open up a private comm, but then again, it was always kind of difficult to predict what Eric was going to do.  
"Hey Jules, guess what the Sentinel can do now."

Julian chuckled a little and opened up the speakers as well, why not just play along for a little while?  
"Oh please, enlighten me."

The sentinel moved onto it's side to reveal a very large cannon now strapped to it's back, it ran parallel to the sniper rifle that Eric was so fond of.  
"See this beauty? It packs the same level of firepower as the main cannons on the Starflare. And guess what else they did to my Gundam. They upgraded the peacemaker to make it more practical to use. Now, instead of having to put both of my arms together to make them, they mounted it to the Sentinel's chest."

Julian shrugged in the cockpit, speaking his thoughts aloud.  
"Makes sense, your Gundam is already dawning some pretty chunky armor, why not toss a giant laser cannon in there as well?"  
"My thoughts exactly, Jules. I think I also heard them talking about some of the enhancements that they're going to put on the Valiant as well, something about a second longsword, and a few hip mounted beam sabers for backup stabbing devices."

Julian thought this over for a moment, a second Valiant sword would certainly make Julian a close quarters monster, it was no secret that the Valiant could hold it's longsword in only one hand. Instead of pointing out the good aspects of getting more then two weapons, Julian decided to take the joking route.  
"Geez, how many swords are they planning on putting on this thing?"

There wasn't a response for a few seconds while Eric laughed lightly.  
"You think that's bad? You should hear what they're doing with the Reaver."  
"Oh lord, what are they doing with Jill's Gundam?"

Eric took a couple of seconds to gather his thoughts on the matter before he spoke.  
"Well, it's actually pretty cool, they're giving Jill a beam scythe as her new primary weapon."  
"That's... unusual."  
"You're telling me, I think they're hoping to catch our enemies off guard with the unorthodox weapon. It'll have a reach that beats out even your longsword."  
"Plus, considering how speedy the Reaver is, Jill could be a real monster if she learns how to use her scythe right."  
"She's in the simulator right now practicing with it, Cecilia's taken the chance to get some practice in as well."

Julian paused at that statement, his voice indicated at his obvious surprise that Cecilia was actually in the simulator.  
"Really? Cecilia never really took the initiative to practice before."  
"Yeah? Maybe that last fight got to her."  
"Maybe... So, Eric, is the Legacy getting any upgrades too?"  
"Not that I know of."  
"Why not? All the rest of us are getting new weapons."  
"I don't think the engineers know enough about the Legacy yet, it's only been sent out in combat twice. At least your Valiant had simulator time... Plus, the weaknesses were rather obvious."

Julian reclined the seat in his Gundam, since it seemed they had a while before they were attacked again, he might as well get comfortable.  
"I suppose you're right."

* * *

The Legacy and the Reaver danced around one another in the empty void of space. Cecilia thought at first that it would be wise to mix things up with some earth based combat. However, Jillian quickly pointed out the error in her thinking by pointing out the fact that a massive majority of their combat had taken place in space so far. And besides, with the current situation the way it was, the odds of ground based combat becoming possible were extremely small. Cecilia naturally backed down to the more imposing woman, and the two began to battle in a simulated space setting. From what Cecilia could deduce about her suit, the Legacy was all about using an extreme amount of firepower. It had two artillery cannons attached to it's wrists, two rail-gun systems mounted to the shoulders, and the automatic turret system similar to the one on the Sentinel Gundam.

At the current moment in battle, Cecilia was doing her best to keep her distance from the Reaver and bombard it with artillery blasts from afar, as Jillian was trying her hardest to close the gap between them so that she could get a solid strike with the scythe. Surprisingly, the Legacy was doing a good job of matching the Reaver's thruster speeds. It was clear that Cecilia's Gundam was designed to put out a great deal of energy, it made her wonder where all of it was coming from, what was supplying the Legacy?

That didn't really matter at the moment though, Cecilia was a bit too focused on keeping the Legacy straight. That was a flaw that Cecilia noticed about her mental transmission system, whenever she got overly panicked, her mind tried to send out too many thoughts at once for the Legacy to handle, it caused the computer to malfunction. While the Reaver's constant assault wasn't exactly frightening Cecilia to the point of a total system meltdown, the Legacy would occasionally stop up or hesitate. These hesitations would add up over time, and they would give Jillian all the time she needed to get into dangerous territory with her new scythe.

Cecilia couldn't help but laugh uneasily as she avoided a particularly close swipe, she then fired both of her cannons to force the Reaver to fall back to a comfortable distance while she opened up an audio channel with the Reaver.  
"Heh, I think I liked it better when you were using your swords."

Jillian's response came quickly, she seemed to be quite humored with the current situation.  
"Oh really? I'm absolutely in love with this thing."

The Reaver charged in again, like it's last assault, it once again got a bit too close for comfort as it swiped it's scythe towards the Legacy's hull. Cecilia withdrew, she put some distance between her and the opposing Gundam before any harm came to the Legacy.  
"I can tell."

Jillian continued her relentless assault, she launched out strike after strike at the Legacy with no end in sight.  
"Oh give me a break, Cecilia. All you're doing is dodging, you're not trying to fight back at all!"  
"Well what do you expect? You're not giving me any kind of opening!"

Despite the fact that the battle looked one sided, it was solid training for the both of them. Cecilia was learning how to dodge and evade better with the Legacy, and Jillian was getting more comfortable with the Scythe. Of course, some things simply couldn't be done in the simulator, some lessons needed to be learned on the battlefield.

* * *

Andy stood behind Captain Talon while he gave his report to two different generals on the bridge of his ship. Despite the fact that neither of them looked very happy at all with the way the report was going, Talon still seemed to compose himself very well. Everything he said came off smooth and cool, that charisma had certainly played a vital role in his ascension through the chain of command. Andy couldn't help but wonder to himself if Captain Talon perhaps intended the botched operation, because of how graceful his words came off as. Andy tuned back into the conversation just as Talon was defending his actions against the Arteron ship, for about the seventh time... These generals really liked running the conversation around in circles.  
"Sir, as I stated before, this battle was nothing more then an assessment of the opponent's mobile suit capabilities. We still know too little about these machines, these Gundams, to properly plan a counterattack."

The second general leaned forward on his table a little, this was the same answer they had gotten multiple times in the past, but it still didn't seem to satisfy him.  
"So you spent all of those soldier's lives just trying to get information?"

Captain's next statement was almost instantaneous, as though he were eagerly awaiting his chance to say his opinion on the matter.  
"What better way to honor them now then to use the information they gave their lives for to destroy the Gundams. As a soldier, I would be honored if my death directly resulted in the security of my home, I believe my men feel the same way."

Both Generals stopped to think about this for a little while, before they came to a conclusion about their opinions on the matter, Talon took a step towards the screen and spoke again.  
"If you don't mind, sirs, I have a much more urgent piece of information I'd like to get across to you as quickly as possible."

The generals both seemed taken by surprise by Talon speaking up. Thus far, he had simply stood and waited for them to ask their questions, hearing him say something now was a change from the previous momentum. The general on the left screen nodded, speaking in a serious tone.  
"Go ahead and speak, Captain."

Talon stood straight and coughed into his glove to clear his throat before he began speaking, a bit of a habit, Andy supposed.  
"Well, after we began our retreat, the trajectory of the Arteron war vessel makes me believe that they're going to try and make a break through the omega sector in order to meet up with their main forces. I believe that you should make the command call to increase patrols in that region, and scramble your forces for combat deployment on a moment's notice."

The general on the right screen suddenly rose from his chair, his voice angry and aggressive.  
"What gives you the right to make our decisions for us! You're just a captain!"

Talon smirked gently and spoke in a tone as cool as ever, despite the growing anger of the general.  
"I'd never dare do such a thing. I was just giving you my suggestion, that is all, sir. At the end of the day, the command decision most certainly rests with you."

Neither General knew what to say for several seconds, after enough time in silence passed, Talon turned sideways and glanced at the door.  
"If you're through with me, I have a several matters to attend to on board my own ship."

It was extremely rare for a subordinate officer to excuse himself from the presence of a superior. However, neither general had anything else they wished to say to the captain, so they dismissed without too much of a fuss. Once the video channel was cut, Talon sighed and started heading for the door.  
"I was never one for playing their little political game... I find it all very tiring."

As he opened the door, he turned and looked at Andy, who was following him out.  
"What do you think, Lieutenant Mann?"

Andy shivered lightly as Talon addressed him, he certainly wanted to leave a good impression on his superior.  
"About what, sir?"  
"About the recent engagement with the Arteron forces. You resoundingly have the longest track record of fighting those Gundams, did it feel any different out there this time?"

Andy nodded, he thought back to his time fighting the two Gundams. One being that red one he fought with Julian on Mantura, and the other being that new winged one that appeared first at the Devil's eye.  
"Yes, sir. For one, it felt like we were able to stand against them on equal footing for once, instead of always scrambling to counter their offensives. Another thing that likely contributed to that was the fact that we, the ares units anyway, were operating much more like a unit then we had in the past."

Andy lowered his head for a moment, recalling that of the initial fifty ares blades, there were now only six that were still alive, Andy being one of them. It left a bit of a sick feeling in his stomach, knowing that so many talented pilots of the ETGF had been killed so easily by those Gundams. As the two walked down the hallway, Talon replied to Andy's insight.  
"Yes, that certainly seems to be the case, Lieutenant Kona gave me a similar report."

Andy looked up at him, confused by that name.  
"Lieutenant Kona?"

Talon looked back towards Andy and came to a halt in the hallway. His voice carried a great deal of surprise in it as he spoke.  
"You don't know her? She's the unofficial leader of the remaining ares blades, I thought you'd have met her by now, you being one of them."

Andy turns his head away, ashamed to admit that he had been rather antisocial when it came to the ETGF. His only real friend was Julian, since his social status made it rather awkward for him to interact with those that were more privileged. Nonetheless, this wasn't exactly the time for Andy to be picky with who is allies were, especially with Julian gone. Andy still refused to believe that he was gone forever though, some part of him held faith that Julian would be back someday, somehow. Or perhaps he just wasn't ready to let go of his best friend yet, either way, Andy still held that faith close. He looked up at Talon after a moment of reflection and nodded.  
"Well then, I might as well go meet with the fellow blades then. If you'll excuse me, sir."

With that, Andy moved past Talon and stepped rather quickly down the hallway. He was always hearing that the other ares blades were a very private bunch, and like Andy, they didn't really interact with the crew of the ship outside of themselves. That was understandable, they were the last of a dying breed, so of course they'd keep each other's company more closely then the would the rest of the crew of the ship. Of course, that would make them rather difficult to track down, but him being an Ares blade himself, perhaps it wouldn't take as long as he feared it would. As he tried his best to track down the local gathering point of the Ares blades, he did his best to keep his motives to himself. It was a rather cruel world in the ETGF, the last thing he wanted was to be given trouble by the other pilots on board because he didn't know where to find his 'brothers'.

Eventually, Andy glanced into a small conference room that was at the end of a hallway in the dormitory section. The reason this particular area stood out was because all 6 Ares pilots were assigned to rooms in this hallway, so it only made sense to check and see what was inside. As he stepped in, he saw a group of 5 people, which immediately spiked his hopes that he found the group of people he was looking for. However, not all of them seemed too happy to see him, one of the men, a large bulky hulk, got off the wall he was leaning on and stepped towards the door.  
"And who might you be, kid?"

Andy took a step backwards, the last thing he wanted was to pick a fight with his own allies.  
"I just figured I'd stop by and-"

A man quite smaller then the hulk, about Andy's height and body structure, came behind the massive man and urged him away from the door.  
"Take it easy, he's one of us."

The massive man looked over at Andy, as though he suddenly realized who he was.  
"oh! This kid must be the black sheep then!"  
"Yeah, I think so."

The smaller man looked over at Andy.  
"You're Lieutenant Mann, right?"

Andy took a step forward again, addressing the clearly more reasonable of the two.  
"Yeah, that's me."

The man laughs and steps out of the doorway, he lightly punches the massive man's arm as he did.  
"See that, Byron, you don't have to be so aggressive towards everybody who comes by... It's not like standard pilots are our enemies anyway."

Byron simply grunted and moved out of the way as well, which allowed Andy entry into the conference room. As he crossed the threshold, Byron grunted out a brief apology before he pressed his back up against the wall by the door, exactly where he was moments before Andy interrupted the group. As he stepped into the room, Andy looked towards the man that seemed to be just a few years older then him, the one that had called Byron off his aggressive stance. The man simply shrugged at Andy and spoke in a light tone.  
"Don't mind Byron, he's just not a people person."

Andy made a passing glance over his shoulder at Byron before he returned his gaze to the other man, who had stepped towards Andy and was offering his hand.  
"Name's Ashton Wallace, one of the blades."

Andy shook his hand with a light smile.  
"Nice to meet you, Lieutenant Wallace."  
"Oh, Ashton will do. We're all on a first name basis around here."

Andy looked at the three remaining people in the room. The only remaining male not introduced was a tall, skinny man that appeared to be in about his mid thirties, he had barely lifted his head out of the book he was reading to address Andy's presence. He had rather short white hair, which wasn't unheard of due to a genetic deficiency, and he wore a pair of slim reading glasses, Ashton made the introductions.  
"That's Hans Ollaeg, he keeps to himself even more then Byron does."

Andy then looked at the second unintroduced person, a woman in her late twenties. She certainly seemed athletic, and rather intimidating as well, from the way she carried herself. Long black hair fell to about her shoulders, and emerald colored eyes glared out, possibly unintentionally, towards Andy.  
"Jessica Kona, she's the boss."

The second girl was a blonde that looked roughly around Andy's age. Her hair was cut surprisingly short, only coming down to about the middle of her neck, though a few bangs did slide in front of her light blue eyes if she shifted around a little too much, something that seemed to happen all too often. For the first few moments, Andy was taken. It was shocking to find pretty girls working within the ETGF, much less in Andy's very same unit. Ashton lightly slapped Andy on the back to regain his attention as he spoke.  
"And this is-"

The girl lightly jumped off the table she was sitting on and walked towards them.  
"Easy there, Ashton, I can introduce myself."

Ashton shrugged as the girl offered Andy her hand.  
"Name's Mirabelle Lancaster, all these guys just call me Mira."

Andy shook Mira's hand, he would have preferred that the contact last longer. Why did he take so long to introduce himself to these guys? He could have met Mira back when he first got on the ship!  
"Andrew Mann, my friends call me Andy."

Andy stopped when he realized what he had blurted out, the only person before that had really called him Andy was Julian. Mira stepped backwards and smiled playfully at him, as though she got a sense for how uneasy he was about what he just said.  
"Nice to meet you, Andy."

Mira giggled and jumped backwards onto the table, the jump seemed a little superfluous, since she could have simply lifted herself up. Still, she seemed like a person way to energetic to do something as mundane as that. Ashton seemed to take note that Andy was infatuated with her from the first glance, and he laughed lightly and whispered in his hear.  
_"Good luck with that one."_

Andy looked back at Asthon, his face rather red.  
"Hey, what do you mean by-"  
"Lieutenant Mann."

Andy looked over towards the voice, Jessica had propped herself off the wall and started to walk towards him.  
"It's good that you finally decided to get out and meet people, we had you marked as 'the black sheep' before."

Andy shivered a little, this woman's voice was rather abrasive, tough.  
"Yeah, I heard Byron say something about that."

Jessica offered her hand, making her the third of the group to do so.  
"Welcome to the group, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Andy shook her hand, as he expected, her grip was as tight as any man's that he had shaken in the past.  
"Thank you. So, uh, what are you guys doing right now?"

Mira butted in before Jess had a chance to speak up.  
"We were arguing about what movie we wanted to watch before you showed up."

Ashton grinned a little and nodded over towards her.  
"The _kid_ wants to watch some really terrible romance movie."  
"What's wrong with _Dear Freddy?_! I heard from my sister that it's a good movie!"

Jessica smirked a little and glance over towards Mira for a second.  
"Where does your sister get her taste in movies? It's a terrible... terrible movie."

Mira glared at Jessica, more playfully then serious.  
"Alright, fine, any movies you wanna watch, Jess?"

Jess looked back over towards Andy, her decision came quickly.  
"You know what, why don't we let Andy here pick, since he finally came out of his cave."

Andy took a light step towards the door, smiling in relief at how laid back these guys actually seemed.  
"Well, I'd have to take a look at what the ship has on it's library..."  
"Awesome! I'll come too to make sure he picks out something good!"

Mira suddenly bounced back off the table and swiftly walked over to Andy, where she promptly grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the door. As he left, he heard Ashton speak in a light tone.  
"Now I'm scared."

For a few seconds of awkward silence, Andy allowed Mira to drag him through the ship towards the media library. He was rather content with this, since he didn't know his way around the ship very well. As they put some distance between them and the conference room, Mira let go of Andy's arm and started to settle down a bit. This was quite a relief to see this, as Andy didn't know if he would be able to take her being so overly energetic all of the time. Mira came to a stop for a second and turned to look at Andy, a bit of sincerity in her gaze.  
"So, Andy, there's a rumor going around that one of your friends went MIA, is it true?"

Andy shut his eyes and looked away, the incident that shooed away Julian was still fresh in his mind.  
"Yeah, it's true."

Mira started walking again, though a bit more slowly so that she could more properly comprehend the conversation.  
"The details surrounding it are a bit fuzzy... Could you maybe elaborate?"

Andy started walking as well. Of course, his voice sunk a bit as he relived those scarce few moments. He didn't have any issues relaying the story, not to Mira anyway, she seemed like one of the more approachable people on this ship.  
"Well, he and I came across a suspected enemy of the ETGF. I was preparing to fire, and vaporize them on the spot. Luckily, Julian had the good judgment to cut my attack off, and remind me that they deserved a proper judicial punishment... Turns out a few of our comrades that also witnessed the scene didn't agree."

Mira turned back towards Andy and walked backwards, eagerly listening to his words.  
"Really? Why was that?"  
"They were a pair of overly rash extremists that immediately called Julian a traitor and started firing. Julian did the only natural thing to do and flee, that was the last time I saw him. To this day, the two that attacked him are KIA, and he's MIA."

As the more interesting bits of the story appeared to be over, Mira returned to walking forward, though she still glanced sideways to keep an eye planted on Andy.  
"So the treason charge was never filed?"

Andy shrugged and returned her gaze, he found her eyes to be absolutely beautiful, soothing to look into.  
"that's right, the uppers decreed that there wasn't enough evidence present to file him as a traitor."

Mira shut her eyes and smiled at him gently, which could be taken as a possible attempt at comforting the rather down Andy.  
"Well, hopefully he's alive out there somewhere. If he is, we'll need to bring him back safely."  
"Yeah... here's hoping."

* * *

Cecilia rested in the cockpit of the Legacy, on standby orders. Everything had happened so quickly, that Cecilia really didn't know what to do with this new calm, this time to rest. The events of the last couple of days started to swirl around in her head, over the course of just a few days Cecilia went from living in the slums of an earth colony to piloting one of the most powerful weapons ever produced by human hands. Apparently her father had something to do with this, though she had no clue who the man was. There were people that had given their lives to get Cecilia to this point, people who died in order to get her in the cockpit of the Legacy. Now that she had a pause in the action to think about everything, she really didn't know if she'd be able to handle pressure like that. She looked down by her sides, her hands were shaking, it was such an unusual feeling, being so important.

Then, there was the issue with that black and green Gundam that appeared, the one that caused the spastic headache. What was the cause of that? Who was the person piloting that thing? Why did the pain feel so familiar? All of these questions acted like a hurricane in Cecilia's mind, she was almost desperate to get them answered. She couldn't explain it, but something about the way that pain seared into her mind was just so extremely familiar, like a long forgotten memory that was fighting to resurface. She shut her eyes and rested her head against the cold, metal interior of the Legacy, silently hoping that the answers to these questions would surface over the course of her time with Arteron.

The odd thing was, she wanted these answers, but she feared what they might be at the same time. Part of her wanted to just run away from it all, leave this war behind her, find a place where she could live alone, not be bothered by other people. However, she promptly threw these fears away, she was in a position to bring justice down upon those who wronged her, her friends, and countless other people over the course of the ETGF reign.

She opened her eyes and nodded to herself, she would be the avatar of the oppressed, she would be a beacon of hope for all those that lived their entire life under the oppressive thumb of those lucky enough to be born into wealth.

She would be... Justice.

* * *

It had been several hours since the battle against Talon's ship ended, the Starflare had reduced it's speed to barely a crawl in order to avoid any dangerous spikes in the thermal levels. This would greatly reduce the chances that the Starflare would be spotted by any passing patrols. Jillian and Cecilia had taken over standby orders about two hours ago, and Julian had taken this time off to relax, something he didn't really have time to do up until this point. Between constant battles, training with Jillian, and a little bit of time squeezed in for sleep, there was little relaxation the last couple of days. Now, for the first time since he first jumped in the Valiant, Julian started to think about his situation, what he had gotten himself into. Julian was likely considered a traitor to the ETGF right now, he'd never see his father again, he'd never see his home again, he'd never see his friends again.

Julian had started to wonder if he had done the right thing by joining Arteron. Back during the battle of Mantura, the only thing on his mind was staying alive, and once he was on board the Starflare, he pushed all of his issues out of his mind out of a need to accomplish something. At the time, he felt betrayed by the entire ETGF, and even now, Julian was starting to realize that the only way that the Earth was ever going to change for the better, was if the old system was completely taken out and replaced with a newer one, a better one. So that's what Julian decided to fight for, a better tomorrow for everybody. As far as he saw it, the best group for the job was Arteron.

But... was that really right? Did Julian really have the strength to leave his entire life behind him in order to fight for the greater good? All of these thoughts, all of these worries, all of them ran themselves in circles around his mind. Eventually, he just rolled over onto his side and shut his eyes, all he had to do was focus on the next battle, nothing else mattered. Then, after the next battle, he'd focus on the battle after that, then the battle after that. As long as he didn't look up at the big picture, he'd be fine.

Or so he hoped.

* * *

Jillian was tapping her finger impatiently on the panel of the Reaver, being on standby was like torture to her. Her impatience became more and more evident with each passing second. The Reaver's cockpit was small, and she couldn't stand not being able to move around very much, like she was in a prison cell. She had been told so many times in the past that she had to relax during standby, but how could she relax when she was trapped in this tiny cage and told to sit there for three hours! Two of those hours were up, thankfully, so now she only had 58 minutes left until she was able to get out and do things again. She didn't even really understand the purpose of standby, in every single battle thus far, the Starflare was either the instigator, or had enough time to prepare their defenses and launch all of their forces before the battle began. Jillian checked her watch again, 57 minutes left.

She groaned and rested her head forward on her hand, this was the worst.

* * *

Eric strolled into the bridge, something he did rather often once he had nothing better to do. The bridge crew came to realize that him coming to bother them was a good indication that he was bored. As he stepped in, he rested his arms on his sister's command chair and spoke in his usual relaxed tone.  
"What's up, sis?"

Terra looked up at him, somewhat more at ease now then she had been recently. After all, it had been several hours since the last attack, so there was a possibility that they were home free, despite how small that possibility was. Terra outright refused to believe that they wouldn't encounter any more earth forces, since the last encounter had given away their position, and the direction that they were heading. As such, a third of the remaining crew, which consisted of the Gundams, Kamaru, and about twenty surviving Nomura pilots, remained on standby constantly.  
"Same as usual, Eric."

Eric strolled around, put his hands in his pockets, and looked out the main screen to see the stars.  
"Fretting over every last step, afraid that we're going to bump into a landmine at any given second?"

Terra looked up at him, her eyebrows narrowing a bit to show her annoyance.  
"That extra caution may just be what keeps us alive."

Eric shrugged, backing away slightly.  
"I know, I know... I'm just saying."

Before he could continue his defense, Lilly looked over towards Terra and spoke in a hurried voice.  
"Ms. Terra! We've picked up something! It looks like an Earth forces fleet!"

Terra jolted in her chair a little, snapping back into her usual, more worried, quick thinking self.  
"Put it up on screen!"

Lilly complied, and on the screen appeared four earth warships, all of them spread out in a line that would allow them to detect any ship that tried to slip past them. It was a very effective barricade, and it seemed like it covered the entire sector. Terra thought for a second to have the Starflare go around them, since it seemed that the ships hadn't detected it yet. However, any increase in speed would be like setting off a flare under their noses, and Terra got the feeling that they'd notice the ship that was crawling along right at their border. It was also too late for them to turn back and go through another way, since Terra was quite sure that a pursuit team was on their way.

Long story short, it didn't look good.

Eric whistled a little as he saw the warships. The Starflare wasn't in any way, shape, or form, prepared to take on such a massive fleet.  
"That doesn't look pretty. Why is it that every time I come up here, bad things happen?"

Terra was far too focused on trying to think of their next move to acknowledge his light tease. After a few seconds, she turned to Lilly.  
"We should be close enough to make emergency radio contact, send out an SOS to any Arteron forces in the area on line B-62-9."  
"Rodger."

Terra then turned towards Tamaki at the weapons station, her voice not lowering a bit.  
"Prepare our antisiege cannons, we're going to go in swinging! All hands, Combat Condition red!"

Eric waved away as he strolled back into the elevator that would take him down into the launching bay.  
"See ya later."

* * *

Within ten minutes, every pilot on the ship was prepared for combat. The Starflare had turned to face the warships, and was slowly advancing. It would be another 15 seconds before it let out a blast from it's most powerful cannons, and then the battle would kick off. Hopefully, the initial strike would catch them off balance, so that the crew of the Starflare could hold onto the tiny advantage that it had.

Cecilia breathed in deeply, as long as she was with the Legacy, there was no way they would lose. It was time to show everybody what it meant to be a beacon of Justice. Just as long as the Legacy performed as well as she knew it would, there wouldn't be any issues.

Julian's heart hammered in his chest, these were enemies, nothing more. He couldn't afford to think of them as people, if he did, he'd end up staying his hand. It was the same reason that he had stopped Andy back on Mantura. He could kill mobile suits... He couldn't kill people.

Jillian did a final inspection of all the Reaver's systems, she was eager to try out her new primary weapon, but the circumstances surrounding the upcoming battle were less then favorable. Nonetheless, she couldn't afford to be weak, the ship needed her now more then ever. She had to give it her all.

Eric kept himself calm and cool, preparing for the inevitable order to launch. If it came down to it, he was prepared to die in the name of Arteron. That's what it meant to be a soldier, going out and fighting when there's a very good possibility that you might not come back alive. He was prepared for this, it was who he was. Haro looked up at him from his own seat, where he was had wired himself into the Sentinel's systems.  
"Let's go get 'em! Let's go get 'em!"  
"You said it, little buddy."

After a few moments of baited breath, two massive beams erupted from the cannons of the Starflare. The battle had begun.


	6. NOT A REAL CHAPTER: potential reboot

**Dear readers**

I started writing the Legacy Gundam story a long, long time ago. Since then I've come to the realization that it's been a story that's been riddled with spelling errors, simple grammatical mistakes, and a few inconsistent characters that border on mary-sue territory. Since I've started writing Legacy Gundam, I've started proofreading my work, and quite frankly, I've just gotten better at writing. I would like to take a poll among the readers of this story, asking rather or not they would like me to just ret-con this original story and throw the reboot at it.

Legacy Gundam is a story that I think has a lot of potential, however, in order for that potential to be realized, I think it's important to begin from the start again, just so that I can fix some of the simple mistakes that I've made, get a more concrete foundation on the plot events, and make some of the characters more humanlike (Julian and Cecilia in particular).

Should I reboot, or should I just keep going as it is? If you have an opinion on the matter, please either leave it as a review or PM me with it. If I don't hear from anybody in... say... a month or so, I'll just go with the Reboot.

Thank you for your time, and your continued viewership, I wouldn't still be writing if it weren't for you.

-Toughie


End file.
